RANGELEY – Police charged three Massachusetts teenagers Wednesday in connection with the theft of a money bag containing about $400 from a redemption and used goods store Tuesday.
Two of the suspects face additional charges after they stayed at a camp and allegedly damaged a snowmobile.
One of them ended up with a cast on his leg after he rolled a snowmobile over, police said.
Michael Pulisciano, 18, of Milford, Mass., Dustin Hoffmaster, 18, of Milford, Mass., and a 17-year-old girl from Mendon, Mass., were each charged with theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, said Rangeley police officer Michael Hall on Wednesday.
Pulisciano and Hoffmaster were charged with criminal trespass, use of drug paraphernalia and criminal mischief, Hall said.
It started when the teenagers took two bags of empty cans to redeem at ACW Redemption and Used Goods on Main Street on Tuesday afternoon, Hall said. While one of them distracted the owner, another one took a money bag off the counter containing about $400, Hall said.
Police were alerted to be on the lookout for a white car with a blond girl and two males, he said. Hall said he looked for hours for the suspects and couldn’t find them.
At 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, a burglary in progress was reported at a camp on William Road by a neighbor who noticed people and a white car there. The neighbor checked with the camp’s Massachusetts owner and then reported the burglary to police, Hall said.
The owner said that no one should have been at the camp, Hall said.
When the officer pulled up to the camp and noticed lights on in it, he called for backup from the Border Patrol, Hall said.
They entered the building with their guns drawn to secure the building, he said.
It looked as if someone had been living there for a week, he said, but no one was there at the time.
There was a medical bottle on the counter with a girl’s name on it, which matched the camp owner’s name, he said. Hall said he called the owner and was told she was his daughter who had run away about a week ago.
Police also discovered images on a camera that showed three people smoking marijuana from a bong and drinking alcohol, and a photo of a man holding up a “big wad of cash,” Hall said.
He said that he then realized that the camp burglary and the stolen money bag were connected.
Officers went out looking for the car, which was spotted coming back to the camp, Hall said.
Hall said he took the suspects to the police station for questioning.
Two of the suspects claimed they didn’t know the third suspect had taken the money bag until they saw the back-seat passenger throwing envelopes out the back window after removing money from them, Hall said.
The two men were released and the girl’s parents came up from Massachusetts on Wednesday. The girl ended up driving the men back to Massachusetts, he said.
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