BANGOR, Maine — Someone driving a 15-year-old Daewoo station wagon drove into the Target parking lot in the middle of the night earlier this month and borrowed a front end loader to damage lights and a fence at the adjacent and vacant former Home Depot.
Police have the Daewoo’s registration number and know who owns that car but have yet to talk to them, Sgt. Tim Cotton said in a Friday post of the department’s Facebook page.
“[We] have received several tips on the location of the car, and I think we will wrap this case up in a matter of a few days,” the sergeant said. “Remember, IF YOU DID THIS, we would always rather you turned yourself in.”
The Facebook post by Cotton, filled with humor about how bad the person drove the loader and the fact they own a Daewoo, caught the attention of a reporter in Boston who had a little fun reporting on the crime.
When referring to the loader driver, Cotton wrote, “I am totally serious about this when I say that any mammal with thumbs could have done a better job. I am including the elusive aye-aye in my list of creatures that would be a better driver.”
Cotton also posted a picture of the small primate along with the store’s surveillance camera images so readers would know what he was talking about.
“I agree that it might have been a little wacky but that’s what we do best,” Cotton posted on Friday while giving an update on the bizarre theft case.
It’s a theft because the person driving the Daewoo broke into a Bobcat tractor parked near the loader and took a battery that they used to get the loader started, Bangor police Sgt. Wade Betters said Sunday.
The person entered Target’s parking lot at 3:21 a.m. on Feb. 10, and after taking the loader on the destructive joy-ride they returned it to Target and then got back into the Daewoo and left at about 5:45 a.m.
“We know who owns the Daewoo station wagon. We would like them to call us,” the Facebook post states. “No one seems to know where these individuals are.”
Those with information about the crime can call Bangor police Officer Ryan Jones, at 947-7384, or use the anonymous tip line, accessed by pressing extension 6.
“If you own the Daewoo, call us and tell us where you are staying,” Cotton said. “This will be solved, it is a matter of time.”