Hampden police summoned a Burnham woman and a juvenile from Bucksport on Sunday afternoon after they allegedly drove out of Dysart’s Travel Stop without paying for $18 worth of gas.

Officer Ruth Duquette said that at about 5 p.m. a clerk at the truck stop called to say a small blue car had driven away without paying for gas. A clerk had tried to stop the car, but it only drove away faster. Duquette took the license number and the description of the two female occupants, then notified area agencies.

Duquette said Officer Larry Merrithew of the Newport Police Department was on the lookout for the car and stopped it on Interstate 95.

The occupants denied they were in Hampden, Duquette said, but Merrithew had them drive to the station, where Duquette met with them.

Duquette said Heidi Huff, 18, of Burnham and a 17-year-old girl from Bucksport eventually confessed to taking the gas. Both were summoned for theft. Duquette said the case is still under investigation.

A rash of soda machine burglaries has hit Bangor, police say.

Bangor police Officer Dennis Lally reported that sometime between 6 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Monday, somebody drilled out the lock on a soda machine in front of the Exxon filling station on Hammond Street. The coin box, containing an estimated $100 in change, was taken.

Lally said two other soda machines, both on Outer Hammond Street, had their locks drilled out the week before. The perpetrator apparently takes time breaking into the machines, Lally said, and probably steals late at night.

Somebody broke into a tire storage trailer in Bangor over the weekend.

Bangor police Officer Dennis Lally reported that sometime between Saturday and Monday, two padlocks were cut on a trailer behind Stratham Tire in Target Industrial Circle. The manager at Stratham Tire was unsure how many tires were missing, but said the padlocks cost $15 each.

Bangor police arrested a man after his transmission ruptured on Main Street early Monday.

Officer Shawn Green reported that at about 1:30 a.m. he noticed a car parked next to the curb on Main Street, near Shaw’s Supermarket. Green said the car’s headlights were on, and the reverse lights kept turning on and off.

Green pulled up behind the car to offer to help. The driver, Michael Violette, 42, of Hampden, got out and told him he broke his shifter.

Green said Violette’s eyes were bloodshot and he was unsteady on his feet. Violette told Green he had had one beer.

Green looked under Violette’s car and saw a puddle of fluid under the transmission.

Green said dispatch informed him that Violette’s license had a condition forbidding him to drive with any alcohol at all in his system.

Green tried to administer sobriety tests, but he said Violette was too intoxicated to follow the instructions. Violette was arrested and charged with operating under the influence and operating without a license.

Green said Violette refused to take a breath test at the station.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Isaac Kimball