A woman who was hired to clean a house in Belgrade allegedly moved into the house and lived there for a number of days before taking some of the owner’s items.
Edmund King, the owner of the property, told the Morning Sentinel that he had hired a woman who claimed to be a cleaner after he posted an ad to Craigslist earlier this summer. King, who rents out the house for much of the year while he stays in Florida, gave the woman a key to his house and expected that she would do the job he had hired her for.
Instead, he was notified by his neighbors in late June that the woman had been coming and going from his garage, according to the Waterville newspaper.
King, who is 83 years old, said that he had notified the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office after he suspected that she had stolen an antique pistol, a leaf blower and two chainsaws, the newspaper reported.
The sheriff’s office told the Morning Sentinel that the woman claimed that King had granted her permission to stay at the property for three days to complete the task he had hired her for.
According to Sgt. Galen Estes, police cannot charge the woman with theft without serial numbers for the items that King alleges were stolen, as well as noting that King had tenants renting the house at the same time as the incident occured.
King contacted the Maine State Police and provided receipts for the missing chainsaws, but stated that he does not keep serial numbers of all of his belongings, the newspaper reported.