SHERMAN, Maine — A 26-year-old New Canada man was charged Sunday on three counts of unauthorized use of a vehicle after allegedly stealing three cars from the Wallagrass, East Millinocket and Sherman areas.
According to a report from the Maine State Police, trooper Ben Campbell of Troop E initially responded to a report of a vehicle off the road in Hersey Township at 3 a.m. Dec. 9. When he arrived, the operator of the vehicle was not there. Through his investigation, Campbell discovered the vehicle had been stolen from Wallagrass earlier in the night.
At about 3:50 a.m. East Millinocket police received a complaint that a vehicle was stolen from a parking lot near the Irving in Medway and the driver proceeded onto Interstate 95 north. Officer Seth Burnes responded and through his investigation learned that the vehicle made it to the Sherman Circle K convenience store.
The Troop F barracks was contacted and requested to assist Officer Burnes. Trooper John Darcy responded to the Circle K, however, before Officer Burnes or trooper Darcy arrived, the male suspect took a third vehicle that belonged to one of the Circle K employees and left in an unknown direction.
Video footage obtained by police from the store shows the suspect walking into the store. From that image, trooper Hafford deduced that the suspect looked like Pat-Rick Daigle of New Canada. Trooper Hafford was at the scene in Wallagrass where the first vehicle was reported stolen, but the image was sent to him electronically.
Hafford noticed footprints in the snow and requested a tracking dog to attempt to locate where the foot tracks came from. Sgt. Chad Fuller and his K9 Gleni responded to the scene on the Strip Road in Wallagrass. The police dog tracked the footprints at the scene of the stolen vehicle to Daigle’s front door in New Canada.
A warrant was put out for Daigle’s arrest. Troopers and the Warden Service continued to search the New Canada area in an attempt to locate the stolen vehicle from Circle K.
Later that afternoon, Daigle turned himself in to trooper Hafford at his home in Wallagrass. Daigle was taken into custody without incident. Daigle was charged with counts of unauthorized use of motor vehicle (class D crimes) and three counts of operating after suspension (class E crimes).
All vehicles that had been stolen were recovered. Daigle was later released on $300 cash bail and has a court dates of Jan. 20 in Houlton, Feb. 2 in Fort Kent and Feb. 4 in Lincoln.
