LEWISTON – The theft of $187,000 worth of sweaty football gear from a Lisbon Street parking lot had police combing the Androscoggin River on Friday looking for clues.
Pieces of the sporting equipment – mostly football helmets and shoulder pads from several Bangor-area schools – were found floating in the river Friday morning.
Thieves took a trailer from the parking lot outside Northeast Athletics overnight Wednesday. The company, which sanitizes and refurbishes the sports equipment, had just taken a delivery of gear from the Bangor area.
Owner Ron Leblanc said he and his staff decided to lock the gear in the trailer for safe keeping. It contained 600 helmets and shoulder pads from Husson College, Orono High School, Brewer Middle School, Reeds Brooke Middle School and Hampton Academy. The door was locked and the trailer hitch was closed with a padlock, Leblanc said.
He returned at 7 a.m. Thursday and the trailer was gone.
Police think the thieves assumed the trailer contained expensive construction equipment or snowmobiles.
“We’ve had several instances of people doing exactly this, cutting off a $5 lock with a $20 bolt cutter and just driving away,” Lewiston Police Lt. Michael McGonagle said Friday.
LeBlanc said he thought the crooks had headed out on the Maine Turnpike. Police were going over videotape footage taken from the Turnpike Authority’s cameras until Friday morning.
“We thought that was it, they just hopped the pike and headed south,” Leblanc said.
Police believe the thieves parked the trailer somewhere along the river and opened it Thursday. When they discovered it was full of old equipment, they emptied it the easiest way they could: by dumping it in the river.
“They probably waited until nighttime to do it, when they wouldn’t be as likely to get caught,” McGonagle said.
Equipment began showing up at the Brunswick-Topsham and Pejepscot dams early Friday morning. Police assume the equipment was dumped somewhere between Lewiston and Lisbon, and they’re concentrating on those areas looking for clues.
“We may get lucky and find a bag or two of equipment, or a piece of foam that fell off of something,” McGonagle said. “It’s quite possible that stuff was left at the scene.”
McGonagle urged people who live along the river to look for the missing equipment.
“If they find something, just be aware that it’s evidence and stolen property and they need to contact us,” he said.
Police do have leads in the case, McGonagle said.
Leblanc said the gear was insured and all of the stolen gear should be replaced.
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