RANGELEY – Persistence pays off.

Rangeley police officer Brian Hughes has been investigating the theft of a 48-inch plasma television from a cottage on Faunce Road since Aug. 21, 2008, police Chief Dennis Leahy said. The TV cost $4,500 new, he said.

Hughes gathered evidence at the crime scene, interviewed people and interrogated suspects.

“He continued to follow new leads through the summer months,” Leahy said, and kept pressing suspects.

Finally Monday, Tucker Blythe, 18, of Rangeley, one of the suspects, came into the police station and turned himself, Leahy said.

“Blythe confessed to Brian that he burglarized the cottage and stated he acted alone,” he said.

Blythe also said he’d hidden the TV at Zeke Hall’s home on Oquossoc Avenue since the burglary. The residence is near the police station.

Blythe returned the TV to the caretaker of the property before he turned himself in, Hughes said Thursday.

Hughes issued summonses to Blythe on charges of felony burglary and theft, Leahy said. He also issued Hall a summons on a charge of felony receiving stolen property.

The two are scheduled to appear in court this spring.

“This case would not have been solved without the diligent, investigative work of police officer Brian Hughes,” Leahy said. “It was a good job. He just kept on looking and looking and it paid off.”