MEXICO – The garbage collection truck stolen from the parking lot of Archie’s Inc. is believed to have been spotted last Wednesday morning on its way to West Paris.

Mexico police Sgt. Roy Hodsdon said someone reported seeing the 1999 white Freightliner garbage collection truck with the number 70 painted on the front side of the hood the day after a picture of a similar vehicle appeared in the newspaper.

The truck was stolen between 6 p.m. Sept. 27 and 7 a.m. Sept. 28.

Hodsdon said the person who reported the sighting said the truck was on Route 219 in the Greenwood area heading toward West Paris.

The Police Department had two suspects immediately after the theft was reported, based on evidence discovered in a mid-1990s red Jeep pickup truck found in the gravel pit behind Archie’s Inc. on the River Road.

One of the suspects, a male in his early 20s, is in the Oxford County Jail after turning himself into Rumford police on an unrelated outstanding warrant. The second suspect has been questioned.

Hodsdon said he plans to talk with the Oxford County district attorney about what steps to take in the investigation.

Soon after the theft, a private plane made a flyover of the area, and both police and Archie’s employees searched for the truck, which has a $100,000 replacement cost.

At that time, Archie’s shop foreman Tim Smith said he doubted if the thieves would get far because so little fuel remained in the truck’s tank.

Hodsdon said he is trying to get another flyover of the area by a plane from the Maine Warden Service.

“The owner is frustrated. We’re trying to do as much as we can,” he said Monday afternoon.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Mexico Police Department at 364-5686.