BREWER, Maine — A Fairfield man who allegedly flashed a handgun while robbing two area businesses in two days was caught by a police officer who saw him sitting in a fast food restaurant’s drive-through two hours after the second robbery.
Brewer police nabbed Alex Gerald, 21, about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday about two hours after he allegedly robbed a Dunkin’ Donuts shop on outer Wilson Street, police Lt. Chris Martin said Thursday.
Old Town police Detective Tom Adams also charged Gerald on Wednesday with robbing a Sun Tan City salon in that city the day before.
Police in Brewer and Old Town determined that the two crimes might be related because they were “very similar in nature,” Adams said.
In both robberies, a man walked up to the front counter of the business and pulled up his shirt to reveal a handgun he had in his waistband before demanding cash.
Because the perpetrator showed a handgun during both robberies, Gerald was charged with two counts of felony Class A robbery, District Attorney Chris Almy said Thursday. Each count is punishable by up to 30 years in jail and a $50,000 fine.
“In both cases he used a handgun to threaten employees and obtain money,” Almy said.
Gerald, who was caught on video surveillance cameras during both robberies, confessed to both crimes, Martin said. He told police that the handguns he used in the robberies were in fact toy guns he changed to look like real guns.
“It was actually two different guns,” Brewer police Detective Sgt. Jay Munson said. Both were BB guns. One “was actually a plastic Airsoft gun that he had spray painted black.” Airsofts are replicas made for recreational purposes.
The fact that the guns were toys does not downgrade the armed robbery charge because the victims believed they were real, Munson said.
Old Town police recovered one of the weapons, and Brewer, with the help of resident Julie Jones and her yellow Labrador retriever, Quincy, found the second BB gun on Pierce Road on Thursday morning. Jones and Quincy are a volunteer search team for VK9 Scent Specific Search and Recovery.
Gerald’s capture would not have occurred without the assistance of a number of partners, Martin said.
Bangor police Officer Rob Angelo and his dog, Karan, traced Gerald’s scent from the doughnut shop to Downeast Toyota on Wilson Street, where video cameras caught him fleeing in a red 1999 Honda Prelude.
An all-points-bulletin was issued and Brewer police Officer Rodney Gerald, who is not related, saw the suspect vehicle at the drive-through at a Burger King on Wilson Street and stopped it.
“Evidence that linked back to [the Brewer] robbery was found in the vehicle,” Martin said, adding that witnesses at Dunkin’ Donuts also identified Gerald as the person who robbed the restaurant.
In the Old Town armed robbery, which was reported at 7:06 p.m. Tuesday, Gerald was given a tour of the Stillwater Avenue salon about a half hour before the robbery occurred, Detective Tom Adams said.
Police did not release the precise amount of cash that was taken in the two robberies, but said the total was less than $1,000.
Gerald, who is working in the Bangor area, also was implicated in theft and forgery crimes in Kennebec County and his hometown of Fairfield, Munson said.
Gerald told police that his motive for committing the two crimes was to get money to buy narcotics.
“I’m considering it a drug-related crime,” Martin said, adding that more and more crimes in Maine are being committed by drug addicts desperate for money.
“It’s pretty commonplace,” he said. “It’s what is happening in our world right now. That’s really a driving force with what we’re seeing” in law enforcement.
In fact, there was evidence that Gerald may have consumed drugs between the Dunkin’ Donuts robbery and his arrest, Munson said.
“There were indicators he had been doing drugs in the recent past when we apprehended him,” the detective said.
Police did not say what type of drug Gerald was suspected of taking.
Gerald was taken to Penobscot County Jail in Bangor after his arrest. He remained there Thursday night, awaiting his first appearance in court scheduled for today, Almy said.
“The guys did a great job,” Brewer Police Chief Perry Antone said. “But what’s new?”
The department also thanked deputies with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department.
BDN writer Judy Harrison contributed to this report.
nricker@bangordailynews.net
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