Lincoln car dealership worker helps police stop car theft

LINCOLN, Maine — Police credited a Cole-Whitney Ford employee Thursday with seeing a leased dealership car being fueled at a West Broadway convenience store and telling police minutes after the lessee reported the car stolen.

Glenn Curtis, 32, a transient from Bangor, and Lynn Cook, 47, of Bangor, were arrested Thursday morning and charged with theft by unauthorized taking, a Class C felony, in connection with the incident.

Police Chief William Lawrence credited the employee at the Main Street dealership with helping police make the case.

“He saw the vehicle there and the people who were in it and didn’t think it added up, so he called us with his cellphone,” Lawrence said Friday of the dealership employee, whom he declined to identify. “It is other people who always help us to solve crimes.”

The incident began for police at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, when a Taylor Street resident called 911 to report that the red Ford Focus he had leased was stolen from his property. Officer Mark Fucile and reserve Officer Richard York were responding to that call when the dealership worker’s call came in.

The dealership worker reported seeing the Ford Focus and a man and a woman in it at the Irving convenience store and gas station on West Broadway. The worker reported his suspicion that the man and woman didn’t belong in the vehicle and the officers sped to the store, Lawrence said.

There they identified the two people as Curtis and Cook, who was driving, and learned that several other charges against the two were outstanding, Lawrence said.

Curtis was also charged with possession of a dangerous knife, while Cook was charged with operating after suspension, violation of bail, illegal possession of hypodermic needles and unlawful possession of narcotics, Lawrence said.

Curtis paid a $150 cash bail and is due at Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor on April 12. Cook was being held Friday at the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor and is due in Lincoln District Court to answer the vehicle theft charge on April 17, Lawrence said.