RANGELEY — An Avon man is accused of trying to break into a house while a senior citizen was home alone Sunday night, police officer John Bonnell said.

Tyler E. Amburg, 23, was arrested on charges of criminal attempted burglary, burglary of a motor vehicle and criminal mischief.

Bonnell said the initial call came in about 10:45 p.m. from the woman reporting a prowler outside her home on Allen Street. He was described as being a white male with no shirt on and wearing blue jeans with a crew cut, he said.

The man was attempting to get in by kicking in the door, he said.

While Bonnell was en route, a dispatcher told the woman to go into the bathroom and lock the door, Bonnell said.

At some point, the resident realized that the man had gone around to the back door and was trying to gain entry that way, he said.

The resident was scared, he said.

“When I arrived, I circled the house looking for signs of entry,” he said. Both the victim and Bonnell were on the phone with dispatchers.

The prowler was not plainly visible, he said.

A U.S. Border Patrol Unit arrived, and he and Bonnell both started circling around side streets to see if the man could be found, he said.

Franklin County Sheriff’s Cpl. Nate Bean and his tracking dog, Diesel, were called into help locate the person, he said.

Bonnell went back to the Allen Street residence to sit at the scene to prevent any contamination of a scent the dog could potentially pick up.

The dog did pick up the scent and tracked Amburg to where he was hiding in the back of the woman’s car, he said.

“He was unconscious,” Bonnell said. “He was extremely drunk.”

Bonnell said he was told Amburg was on probation and had been released from a Cumberland County Jail within 24 hours of Sunday’s incident.

Amburg was being held Monday at the Franklin County Jail in Farmington on a probation violation, a corrections officer said.

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