MILO, Maine — A Maine Department of Transportation employee who had remained at a job site late Monday night was nearly arrested.
The DOT, which is doing pier renovation work on the Pleasant River Bridge in Milo, has had items stolen from the job site over the past few months, including a fuel pump and electrical connections that were cut and removed. Those thefts had been reported to the Milo Police Department.
So when a caller advised Milo police Officer David Henderson that someone had been seen at the job site at 9 p.m. Monday, Henderson treated the situation as a burglary in progress.
With backup from a Brownville police officer, Henderson went to the job site where he heard someone moving inside the DOT trailer, according to Milo Police Chief Kenny Williams. Believing the man was a burglar, Henderson drew his weapon and restrained the man with handcuffs in accordance with department protocol, the chief said.
The man, who told police he was a DOT employee, said he had trouble finding a ride home so he had volunteered to remain in the trailer overnight to keep an eye on the job site, Williams said. Once his identity was confirmed he was released, he said.
“They did everything they should have done properly and luckily no one was hurt,” Williams said of the officers who went to the site.
John Buxton, state bridge maintenance engineer, said Tuesday his department has experienced some losses at bridge projects including the Pleasant River Bridge and a similar project in Atkinson. Since the items taken from both locations have been similar, Buxton said he thinks the same thieves may be involved.
“At that time of night, as far as it was suspicious, if I was a policeman I would have done the same thing,” Buxton said.
Buxton was pleased local police were keeping watch over the job site. He said thieves have “nickeled and dimed” the department and have disrupted other jobs. He said a lot of steel had been stolen this winter or early spring from a job site in Norridgewock under contract with Reed and Reed of Woolwich. The firm is replacing a covered bridge in that community.
Ted Clark, Reed and Reed’s project manager, confirmed Tuesday that about $12,000 worth of steel had been stolen. Thieves took a pallet of threaded reinforcing steel that was going to be incorporated into the new bridge, along with some miscellaneous metals and three employee workboxes that contained tools, he said.
Clark said police had recovered many of the stolen goods, but he was unsure where they were found.