By Rebecca Goldfine,Staff Writer

RUMFORD – Police said a man arrested Tuesday on a charge of stalking a 16-year-old girl has reportedly done the same thing in Portland.

“The Portland police department has several recorded incidents of him following young girls around the Portland area,” Rumford police officer Matthew Noyes said Thursday.

But David Stager, with a current address in Bryant Pond, has never been convicted of any criminal offense in this state, Noyes added.

Police arrested Stager, 47, after a Rumford teenager said he followed her around town for a good part of the afternoon, occasionally rolling down his window and making sexual comments to her, Noyes said.

“He was pretty relentless,” Noyes said.

The girl was taking a walk when she told police Stager followed her in his car along different streets, including Waldo and Hancock.

Eventually, the girl ducked into an apartment, and she called police when Stager remained parked outside.

“She was completely hysterical,” Lt. George Cayer of the Rumford Police Department said. “She felt the suspect was trying to get her in the vehicle with him. He made repeated attempts to try to get her to come closer to the car.”

Noyes said he and officer Paul Casey arrested Stager after contacting him by phone and asking him to come to the station.

At first he denied the allegations, Noyes said, but after a lengthy interview, Stager eventually confessed to making “disturbing comments.”

Police charged Stager with stalking and criminal threatening, both Class D crimes, the latter charge resulting from the statements he made to the teenager.

Stager posted $500 cash bail Wednesday after being arraigned in 11th District Court.

Bail was set relatively high because of Stager’s loose ties to the community and the possibility he might bolt out of town, according to Maine State Trooper Daniel Hanson.

Stager told police he’s between jobs.

Noyes said police are in the process of checking whether Stager has a criminal history in other parts of the United States and Canada where he told police he has lived before. His most recent address before Bryant Pond was in Portland.