FRYEBURG — A Fryeburg man arrived home Wednesday night to find three people carrying his belongings out the door, and when they refused to stop he called police and chased them for 18 miles before they were stopped, he said.

“What are you doing robbing my house?” Elbridge Russell, 56, said he asked the two men and one woman as they exited the door of his home at 1 Stanley Hill Road about 5:45 p.m.

When he drove up to the house he said he noticed “an odd car” in the driveway and wrote down the license plate number before he got out of his truck.

“I told them I’d called the police. I had their license plate number and told them to sit on the ground,” he said in a phone interview Thursday night.

“They got in the car. They put it in gear and kinda tried to run over me. They drove through my lilacs and took off,” he said.

“I got back in my vehicle, went to follow them, dialed 911 and gave police directions” and asked them for help, he said.

“Over the next 18 1/2 miles they kept throwing my belongings out of the vehicle,” Russell said.

Officers from Fryeburg Police Department, Oxford County Sheriff’s Office and Maine State Police closed in on the car as it traveled through Fryeburg, Brownfield, Denmark and eventually Hiram, where State Police Detective Michael Zabarsky stopped the car on Sebago Road near Hancock Avenue, according to officials.

Inside were Eric Morabito, 38, of Buxton, and Jason Sanborn, 33, and his wife, Misti Lee Sanborn, 30, both of Saco.

Fryeburg police officer Nick Cole said Russell identified the three as the people he had seen leaving his house. He confirmed that items belonging to Russell were found by the road between Russell’s home and where the three were stopped.

Morabito and the Sanborns were arrested and charged with burglary and booked at the Oxford County Jail in Paris at 8:20 p.m., according to police and jail records. Bail was set at $500 each. Morabito was released on bail at 12:30 a.m. Thursday, according to officials.

Morabito and Misti Lee Sanborn are listed as unemployed, and Jason Sanborn as disabled, according to jail records.

On Thursday, Russell said he spent five hours retracing the getaway route and picking up his belongings. Among the items stolen from his home, he said, were antiques, glassware and three guns, of which two are still missing.

Russell, a tree farmer and owner of a canoe rental company, said when he discovered Wednesday’s burglary his first thought was, “Here we go again. I’ll have to stop them and have the police take care of the matter.”

He was remembering two years ago this month when he pulled up to his property on Stanley Hill Road. He called police after finding a broken window. After they arrived, David Duquette, 45, of South Portland, jumped out a second-floor window while trying to escape. Russell fired a shot into the air and Duquette stopped running and was arrested.

Police found Duquette with a bag filled with antiques stolen from the home. He was convicted of burglary, theft by unauthorized taking or transfer and criminal mischief.

“Just last week I got a letter saying they are going to let the guy out for good behavior,” Russell said.

Asked if he feels anxious about pulling up to his house now, Russell said, “I don’t live in fear. I’m a former Navy pilot and I’ve had a lot more other things that are more scary.

“I was more interested in finding out what was going on,” he said, after seeing the strange car and three unknown people coming out of his house Wednesday.

His neighbors may rest easier, too, because Russell said he notices vehicles that look out of place and writes down the license plates numbers.

He commended police for doing “an excellent job coordinating” the events leading to the arrests Wednesday night. “They were glad everything worked out well.”