RUMFORD — A local homeless man who broke into a house last weekend and ate the owners’ food pleaded guilty this week and was sentenced to two days in jail, officials said.

Bernard Sanabria, 23, was arrested Sunday morning on burglary and theft charges, appeared in 11th District Court in Paris on Monday and pleaded guilty to criminal trespass. He was sentenced to 48 hours in jail, credited for time served and released, a deputy clerk of the court said Friday. The theft charge was dismissed.

The incident began at about 7:05 a.m. Sunday when Rumford police Sgt. Tracey Higley responded to a complaint about a highly intoxicated person in a couple’s Eaton Hill Road residence, Sgt. Doug Maifeld said Friday.

Maifeld said the wife heard someone open a door downstairs and awakened her husband. He grabbed a weapon and went downstairs and found a young man in the laundry room eating food from their refrigerator.

Maifeld said the husband confronted Sanabria with the weapon, but when he didn’t respond the husband put the weapon down, wrestled Sanabria out of the house and held him on the ground until police arrived.

Higley arrested Sanabria and took him to Oxford County Jail in Paris.

Maifeld said the incident reminded him of a similar one that he responded to about 10 to 15 years ago where a homeowner went downstairs to get a cup of coffee and saw an intruder passed out drunk in his recliner.

tkarkos@sunmediagroup.net

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