RUMFORD – Police from Rumford to Lewiston on Wednesday continued a fourth straight day of investigations into this weekend’s multi-county crime spree that caused more than $25,000 in damage.
The burglaries, thefts and vandalism destroyed a convenience store on Route 120 in the village of Roxbury Pond, damaged another convenience operation in Andover and involved thefts of vehicles and property, police said.
One man has been arrested. More arrests are expected once investigators unravel what began in Newry on Saturday, expanded to Rumford, Roxbury and Andover, dipped into New Hampshire, and back to Byron. On Sunday, the crime wave hit Lewiston before skipping back to Western Maine.
“We’ve been chasing leads and tracking people down,” a tired Oxford County Sheriff’s Lt. Christopher Wainwright said late Wednesday night in a telephone interview. “If they had a girl with them, it would have been a Bonnie and Clyde spree. Instead, it was a Clyde and Clyde and Clyde.”
The crime wave started Saturday at Sunday River Ski Resort when thieves stole a Toyota 4-Runner.
“They trashed it and ditched it in Rumford, broke into the Rumford Public Works Department and stole a pickup with a plow and loaded it with all their stolen stuff. Being idiots, they got stuck in the snow and blew its transmission,” Wainwright said.
The thieves then crashed the 1-ton truck into a new sign at Cogley’s junkyard on Route 120, and stole another pickup truck there, he said.
“Dukes of Hazard-style, they crashed it through the fence and drove to Ellis Pond Variety store and smashed all the windows there. There was carnage there. They stole 30 cartons of cigarettes and cases of beer. They just destroyed the store, and they took everything that wasn’t nailed down,” Wainwright said.
The thieves drove to Andover and attempted to break into Mills Market, but were interrupted in the process and fled to New Hampshire. Then, they returned and stayed at a camp in Byron, then went to Lewiston on Sunday, and back to Roxbury, said Wainwright, who’s investigating the case.
Wainwright said some stolen goods were retrieved Wednesday, and a stolen truck was recovered in Lewiston.
“They went off-road in one of the trucks that had just been painted, and now it looks like it had been through a demolition derby. They did a ton of damage,” the lieutenant said.
He and Rumford police Detective Sgt. Daniel Garbarini traveled to Lewiston on Wednesday night, where they interviewed one suspect who was later arrested by Lewiston police.
Scott B. Pike, 24, formerly of Rumford and now of Lewiston, was charged with theft by unauthorized taking and taken to Androscoggin County Jail, then to Oxford County Jail in Paris.
“Lewiston police have been a tremendous asset,” Wainwright said.
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