By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – The search for fugitive Derek Dube focused on the Twin Cities Thursday after a car he reportedly stole in Wiscasset a day before was found in Lewiston.

Throughout the day, police checked on a handful of tips that the 26-year-old Lewiston man was spotted in various locations around the city. But by late evening, he remained on the loose. Dube is wanted in connection with two home invasions and four burglaries in the Boothbay Harbor area since early July.

The convicted felon is also wanted on charges that he twice led police on high-speed chases with stolen vehicles in Wiscasset on Wednesday. Law enforcement officials described Dube as armed, dangerous and desperate.

At 8 a.m. Thursday, Lewiston police found a Dodge Intrepid that Dube was said to have stolen Wednesday afternoon from a residence in Wiscasset.

Police Officer Robert Dionne was on routine patrol Thursday morning when he saw a woman driving the stolen Intrepid on Main Street. Dionne stopped the car and found a 26-year-old woman behind the wheel but no sign of Dube, police said.

“She’s an associate of Derek Dube,” said police Lt. Mike McGonagle. “We have some solid information that he was in the Lewiston-Auburn area Wednesday night.”

The woman was summoned for receiving stolen property. It was believed Dube spent Wednesday night with a different woman in Auburn.

By mid-afternoon Thursday, police received a tip that Dube was still in the area but that he had acquired a green Dodge Neon to travel through the area.

Police believe Dube was still armed with a gun stolen from a recent burglary. The 26-year-old has a long criminal history in Lewiston, including burglaries and the thefts of firearms.

According to police bulletins sent out over the past few days, Dube has claimed that he will not be taken alive or that police will have to shoot him if he is caught.

“We don’t know what his state of mind is right now,” McGonagle said. “We’d like to get him as soon as possible, before he can harm himself or others.”

Chris Clifford, of the Central Maine Violent Crime Task Force, said agents were in Lewiston searching for Dube and that they were working with new information. He did not want to provide details while the fugitive remained on the loose.

“We have a lot going on,” Clifford said. “We do have some leads we’re working on.”

At about 5 p.m., police were told Dube was on Sabattus Street in Lewiston. Several officers went to the area, but there was no sign of the fugitive. Police dispatchers began circulating information that Dube may have dyed his hair blond.

At about 7 p.m., a woman called police to tell them that Dube was seen near Blake and Birch streets, this time in a green Ford Explorer driven by a different woman. That witness provided a license plate, which was later traced back to a man in Phillips.

“We’re tracking down these leads as they come and doing whatever research we can,” said Lewiston police Lt. Tom Avery. “We take it all very seriously because we know he has roots in the area.”

In Auburn, police said they had received at least one reported sighting of Dube, but that report was not confirmed. Maine State Police were involved in the search, as were county sheriff’s offices across the state.

Dube is best known in Lewiston, where he is known to have several friends and associates and where his criminal history spans several years.

In 1998, he was charged with beating another man over the head with a drinking glass. Less than a year later, Dube was arrested in a home invasion in Sabattus during which a 57-year-old woman was threatened at gunpoint and robbed while she lay in bed.

Dube was sentenced to 10 years in prison for that heist, but five years were suspended. He was released from prison last year and has been on probation since.

The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office is the lead investigating agency in the search for Dube. It wants him for burglaries and thefts on July 4, 5, 12 and 13. He is also wanted in connection with the chases through Wiscasset on Tuesday and Wednesday.

When Dube crashed on Route 1 Wednesday afternoon, the minivan he had been driving plowed through several vehicles parked at a car lot, police said. The owner of Norm’s Used Cars at Routes 1 and 144 told police the wreck had caused more than $50,000 in damage to eight vehicles and a business sign.

Police said Dube escaped the wreck, fled into woods, and later broke into a home on nearby Shady Lane. There, he drank a beer inside the unoccupied home, ransacked a closet and then made off with the homeowner’s car. That vehicle was recovered in Lewiston on Thursday.

In Lewiston, police on each shift were given updated information on the search for Dube as they prepared to patrol the city into the morning hours.

“Everyone knows what to be looking for,” McGonagle said.