PORTLAND

Police seek help identifying Dunkin’ Donuts robber

Additional Photos

This man used a knife to hold up Dunkin’ Donuts at One City Center in Portland on Saturday, according to police. Courtesy photo

Police are seeking this woman in the robbery of a pharmacy in Waterboro. Courtesy photo

Portland police are appealing to the public for help identifying a man who robbed Dunkin’ Donuts at One City Center on Saturday night.

Police said a man entered the store armed with a knife around 7:55 p.m. Saturday. He demanded cash from the clerk and fled with an undisclosed sum. There were no customers in the store at the time of the robbery.

Police described the suspect as a white male in his 20s, roughly 5 feet 2 to 5 feet 4 inches tall. He was wearing a black knit cap, a white sweat shirt, baggy khaki pants and a white bandanna covering his face.

Police asked anyone with information about the crime to call 874-8575. 

Coast Guard: Fore River distress calls were phony

Coast Guard Sector Northern New England suspended its search of the Fore River on Sunday, saying two distress calls received from the area early in the day were a hoax.

Chris Berry, a civilian search-and-rescue coordinator for the Coast Guard, said the call came in around 12:50 a.m. from an adult female who did not give her location. He said the caller said “Mayday” twice and “Mayday” twice again, then “Ten-7 on the Mayday.”

Berry said Coast Guard crews searched the waters of the Fore River for about an hour after the call and for an hour Sunday morning, but found no signs of distress.

Making a false distress call is a violation of the Federal Communications Act, a felony. It’s punishable by five years in prison, a $250,000 criminal fine and a $5,000 civil fine.

The person could also be liable for costs the Coast Guard incurs during the search. Berry said the penalty warnings are read nearly every day during Coast Guard broadcasts.

“We get these calls many times a year,” he said. “We are trying to make people think twice.”

WATERBORO

Authorities trying to find woman who stole drugs

Police are seeking the public’s help in locating a woman who, they said, walked into the Hannaford pharmacy in Waterboro on Sunday and made off with an undisclosed amount of prescription medications.

Sgt. Ronald Lund of the York County Sheriff’s Office said the woman entered the store around 9 a.m., approached the pharmacist and demanded drugs. She did not display a weapon.

Lund described the suspect as being about 5 feet 5 inches tall and 160 pounds with brown hair. The suspect walked with a limp, Lund said.

He said the sheriff’s department is working closely with the Old Orchard Beach Police Department, which is investigating a similar robbery Sept. 30 at a Rite Aid Pharmacy in Old Orchard Beach.

Anyone with information on the suspect is encouraged to contact the York County Sheriff’s Office at 324-1113.

UPPER CUPSUPTIC TOWNSHIP

Stranded in woods, teen, mother rescued by wardens

A Farmington mother and her son were found safe Sunday morning after they did not return home Saturday evening from bird hunting in Upper Cupsuptic Township.

The woman, Paulette Cote, and her 14-year-old son were reported missing around 11 p.m. Saturday by her daughter, Sara Welch. They had left their home Saturday morning to hunt in the unorganized territory in Oxford County.

Wardens and U.S. Border Patrol agents searched through the night and morning for the two, who had followed roads into the woods. They tried to cross the headwaters of Moose Brook, but their 2002 Jeep Wrangler became stuck Saturday afternoon, said Sgt. John Blagdon of the Maine Warden Service.

Warden service pilot Dan Dufault spotted their vehicle from the air, and wardens on the ground freed the Jeep around 10 a.m.

FAIRFIELD

Young hunter injured after being shot by twin brother

A 12-year-old boy shot his twin brother Sunday morning while they were hunting with their father.

The boy was taken to the hospital with a non-life-threatening injury, treated and released, said Deborah Turcotte, state Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department spokeswoman.

The brothers and father went hunting for woodcock and grouse on Covell Road, and at 10 a.m. the group flushed out a woodcock. One of the boys fired at the bird, hitting his brother instead, said Warden Tom McKenney.

All of the hunters were believed to have been wearing hunter orange at the time of the incident, which remains under investigation by the Maine Warden Service.

AUGUSTA

State: License renewal shift could save $90,000 a year

Maine motor vehicle officials say a new system will cut the cost of the driver’s license renewal process.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will send postcards instead of license renewal packets to drivers who are due for license renewals.

The bureau mails 105,000 to 220,000 renewal packets annually at a cost of about 78 cents per notification. Sending postcards will reduce the cost to about 37 cents per notification, resulting in savings of $43,000 to $90,000 annually.

The new notification system became effective Oct. 1. All the information that was mailed previously in the driver license renewal packets will be available online.

STATEWIDE

Eight police agencies get nearly $1.5 million in funds

Eight police agencies in Maine are getting a total of nearly $1.5 million in federal grant money to hire additional officers.

Republican U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins announced the funding from the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

The agencies receiving funds are the Cumberland County and York County sheriff’s departments, the Penobscot Indian Nation Warden Service and local police departments in Houlton, Kennebunkport, Oakland, Presque Isle and Veazie.

Related Stories