RUMFORD — Police said a Mexico man found hiding in a crawl space under a shed on Oxford Street was charged Wednesday with stealing credit cards and charging more than $4,000 worth of goods in two days.

Norman B. Thompson, 42, of 9 Oxford St. will be arraigned early Friday afternoon in 11th District Court in Paris, an Oxford County Jail official said Thursday night.

Thompson is charged with felony theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, misuse of identification and violation of conditions of release, Rumford Police Chief Stacy Carter said Thursday.

A Mexico woman contacted the Rumford Police Department at 7:40 a.m. Tuesday to report the theft of her purse from her vehicle while it was either at her residence or parked on Washington Street in Rumford, Carter said. The purse contained keys, credit cards and $25, he said.

On Wednesday, Detective Peter Casey discovered multiple uses of the cards at various locations and obtained a search warrant for 9 Oxford St. where Thompson lives with his mother.

Carter said Thompson “went on a spending spree.” The purchases were in excess of $4,000.

When police arrived at the house with the search warrant, Thompson ran and hid. Casey called for a tracking dog, Carter said, and the dog found Thompson in a crawl space under a shed. He was taken to the Oxford County Jail in Paris.

Thompson hid in almost the same spot he used Oct. 12, 2007, during a 14-hour standoff with police at his mother’s home, a Rumford officer said Thursday. In that incident, Thompson was smoking a cigarette and was sniffed out by a police dog.

Thompson’s criminal activity goes back to at least 2007. On Oct. 3 that year he was arrested in Lewiston when he jumped from a third-floor balcony and was tackled by Sun Journal photographer Russ Dillingham during a police pursuit. Thompson was wanted for vehicle thefts and eluding police in that city.

At the time of his arrest Wednesday, Thompson was free on bail from a March 11 arrest by Oxford County Sheriff’s Lt. Chancey Libby on charges of theft by unauthorized taking and unlawful possession of tizanidine, a muscle relaxant. He was accused of stealing an Apple laptop computer March 8 from a Telstar Regional High School senior in Bethel and selling it to a Mexico couple for $50, according to Libby’s affidavit.

In late 2014 or early 2015, Thompson was released from prison after serving 19 months of a 10-year sentence for convictions on May 15, 2009, for burglary and theft, according to a clerk in the District Attorney’s Office in Paris.

tkarkos@sunmediagroup.net

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