AUGUSTA – A Pittston man wanted for burglary and sexual assault fled in a canoe and was later tackled and arrested in the Kennebec River.

With an extensive search under way, Gerald Perri made a quiet escape in a canoe that was found abandoned late Wednesday morning in Bowdoinham.

That’s when Trooper Greg Stevens and Marine Patrol Officer Jodi McMahan found Perri allegedly trying to upgrade his watercraft by stealing a motorboat.

“He got it started, but it stalled,” Stevens said. “He saw me and jumped in the water. I jumped in after him.”

The two men sloshed through the shallow water of the Kennebec River at low tide. Stevens’ police dog swam alongside.

Stevens couldn’t catch up, he said, so he hopped back in the boat piloted by McMahan and plucked his dog from the water.

When the boat pulled alongside Perri, Stevens again jumped, tackling Perri and arresting him in the water.

Perri, 36, has a lengthy police record.

In May, he was found guilty of drunken driving, operating without a license and three counts of criminal mischief for an incident in Waterville in which he ran over two motorcycles in front of a bar after being kicked out.

In 2004, he was found guilty of two assaults in Pittston, police said.