A sheriff’s deputy says they have all had run-ins with the law before.
AVON – Three men and a teen, all from Lewiston, are charged with yanking two floor safes from a burned home, missing $1,200 cash and pocketing only $7.50.
In separate interviews, Scott Baitler, 30, Norman Child, 22, and the homeowner’s nephew, David Lakin, 22, as well as a 14-year-old Lewiston boy confessed and were arrested, police said.
Deputy Heidi Gould of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department received a report early Friday morning that two safes had been stolen from the Avon Valley Road home of Frank Lakin. Last week, that home caught fire from a space heater and forced the Lakins to move out.
Deputy Sandy Burke responded because he was in the Avon area on another complaint of clothes and trash in the road. Those items turned out to also be from the Lakin residence.
Burke found a car stuck on the side of Hare Street with a safe inside and another safe that had been broken open nearby.
Burke went out looking for the suspects, who were later found by Gould and Sgt. Steve Lowell back at the stuck car trying to get it moving again.
The men later told police they had gotten stuck and run out of gas and had gone to get another vehicle to tow the car out.
The police dog handled by Cpl. Nathan Bean was called in to find the suspects, Gould said, but before the dog arrived, police had located the four.
Each was charged with one count of Class C burglary and one count of Class C theft. As of Monday, the three men were still in jail. All of them have had run-ins with the law before, Gould said.
The juvenile, who had prior convictions, was taken to the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.
The stuck vehicle was impounded, Gould said, and police found $1,200 in the open safe that the four had overlooked.
Meanwhile, between the four of them, they had pocketed a mere $7.50.
One safe weighed around 150 pounds and a second one, 300 pounds, Gould guessed.
“It was a good team effort,” Gould said, adding that the area was quickly flooded with police, making the arrests a fast process.
sdepoy@sunjournal.com
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