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By Amanda Hebert
News Editor
One man has been arrested and many more are slated to be indicted at the beginning of next month in relation to a rash of car burglaries in the area.
“The people that perpetrated these burglaries have hit almost every town in the county,” Chris Gardiner, a detective with University of Maine Public Safety, said.
Shane Rolfe, 19, of Veazie, was arrested and charged with one count of burglary of a motor vehicle as part of the multi-jurisdictional dragnet to find whomever is responsible for the burglaries. The arrest was the result of two warrants executed at Silver’s trailer park in Veazie.
Gardiner said this charge is a result of a burglary that took place in the Steam Plant lot at UMaine, one of 18 such incidents to take place on campus since Sept. 1.
He said this will probably not be the only charge brought against Rolfe and others police believe to have taken part in the break-ins. Rolfe and the other suspects will be indicted when the grand jury convenes next month.
“It’s going to be a pretty big indictment,” Gardiner said. “It is going to stretch far and wide.”
Gardiner said UMaine Public Safety is working with the Maine State Police and the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the Veazie, Holden and Hampden Police Departments on this case. The Orono and Old Town Police Departments are involved because of jurisdiction over the burglaries but are not working on the full investigation.
“We’ve been working day and night on this,” he said.
While this may not solve all of the car burglary cases at UMaine, it will make a big dent in the caseload.
“There’s several from UMaine that we are going to be able to clear and some in Orono,” Gardiner said.
Next week, people who have been the victims of recent car buglaries will have the opportunity to go to Bangor and identify recovered items.
“We have recovered a large amount of equipment…we just got another car load today,” Gardiner said. “It’s not cheap, there’s thousands of dollars up to this point.”
