SABATTUS – What do you get when you put a fiery minivan, a frozen lake and a snowmobile trail groomer together?
A confused Board of Selectmen and a police investigation.
Early Sunday morning, the Sabattus Fire Department was called to Sabattus Pond to put out flames on an abandoned gray minivan that apparently was set on fire. Dressed in thermal gear, Chief Robert Scott and other firemen walked approximately 1,600 feet out to the van.
“By the time we got out there it was almost out,” Scott said. “It was burnt right down to nothing. We walked out there with shovels and a water can.” The chief said no vehicle identification number or license plate number have been found.
Police Chief Thomas Fales said his department will not go out on the lake to retrieve the vehicle for safety reasons. “We are working with someone to get it towed to land, but we are not going out there,” he said.
Trail groomer Dan Wood was out tending to snowmobile trails around Sabattus Pond when he noticed a red pickup truck circling an abandoned minivan out on the lake last weekend.
“The van has been out there for more than a week,” Wood said. “I saw the pickup drive away from the van, and then seconds later it took to flames.”
Wood called authorities and described the fleeing 4-by-4 pickup, which sped off down one of the snowmobile trails. After a short pursuit police found an abandoned red pickup truck near the edge of sand pit off Old Stage Road.
Fales said the vehicle is in police custody and an investigation is under way.
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