BRUNSWICK, Maine — Two Brunswick police officers dipped into their pockets Wednesday to fulfill the wish of one local man who had run out of options.
Just before noon, Officer Aaron Bailey and Detective William Moir were called to an area near Bath Road, where they found a man in his 40s walking along the road, trying to make his way to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, where a bed in the inpatient detox unit awaited him, Brunswick Police Sgt. Marty Rinaldi said Friday.
The man told the officers he suffered from alcoholism and had saved up his vacation days to enter the treatment program, but needed to get to Lewiston.
“He just couldn’t get there,” Rinaldi said. “This was a guy who had finally had enough and did the responsible thing to get on the right track. He spent his last $20 to catch a cab ride from [a nearby community] to Brunswick, but still needed to get to Lewiston.”
The officers spoke to the man and offered him a number of options, but the type of treatment he needed wasn’t available locally, Rinaldi said.
Cab fare to Lewiston would have been $60 to $70, Rinaldi said, but Brunswick Taxi “knew what the guys were doing so they gave them a break.”
Rinaldi learned of the deed when Moir returned to the office praising Bailey, a former detective, but Rinaldi learned that the two had split the fare.
“Aaron arranged the ride,” Moir said Friday. “He said to the guy, ‘I’ve got a taxi coming for you to go to St. Mary’s,’ and the guy said, ‘I told you, I don’t have any money.’ Aaron goes, ‘It’s taken care of.’ The guy’s like, ‘What do you mean? Are you paying for it?’ Aaron said, ‘Yep,’ and the guy broke down and started crying.”
Rinaldi said he’s not surprised the two officers helped the man, especially after last February when a group of detectives, led by then-Sgt. Paul Hansen, packed a snowblower into the department’s Special Response Team truck and dug a disabled woman out of her Harpswell Road home, where she had been snowed in for about 10 days.
“I’m proud to say these guys work for us,” Rinaldi said. “I can’t say enough good things about them.
Moir said the decision was easy.
“The guy had made every available plan to make this work and it had just fallen through for him, and he was desperate for help,” he said. “And it’s that time of year.”