WATERBORO — A bizarre holiday burglary has resulted in the arrest of a Standish suspect.

According to York County Sheriff William L. King, Jr., deputies responded to a home on Bennet Hill Road in Waterboro at 4:30 p.m. Sunday for a report of a burglary.

King said that a caller had informed deputies that when he had returned home that day, he had found an intruder, later identified as Derek Tarbox, 35, of Standish, inside his residence watching television.

“It appeared that Tarbox had eaten some food, taken a shower, and dressed himself in the caller’s clothing he found in the residence,” King said. “The intruder told the caller that he had made a mistake and thought the house belonged to a friend who had left the front door opened for him.”

The sheriff said that the front door was locked when the caller had returned home, but that apparently did not resonate with him initially.

King said Tarbox asked the resident to drive him home and to get the intruder to leave, he reluctantly agreed to drive him home.

“The caller thought the scenario was unusual, but plausible, so he agreed to drive the man to a house in Hollis,” King said.  “When he returned home and inspected his house further to found his back door had been forced open, food missing from his refrigerator, and other signs of the house being ransacked.”

When deputies arrived at the residence, they teamed up with Maine State Police and found that Tarbox had allegedly stolen a vehicle in Portland and ran out of gas in Hollis, where he stole another vehicle and drove it to Bennet Hill Road where he went off the road and crashed it in the woods.

“He then walked to the caller’s home, broke in through the rear door, had a bite to eat, showered and watched a little television before being confronted by the rightful tenant of the property,” King said.

Investigators then were told by a relative of Tarbox at the Hollis location that he had been dropped off earlier in the evening and requested a ride from them. They drove him to a house in Limerick.

“When deputies and troopers went to that location, Tarbox fled and was quickly apprehended without incident,” King said.

When taken into custody, Tarbox was still wearing the original caller’s clothing.

King said that Tarbox was arrested and charged with burglary, two counts of unauthorized use of property, leaving the scene of a property damage accident, failure to report an accident by quickest means, theft by deception and theft by unauthorized taking.

Tarbox will be arraigned on Wednesday and remains at the York County Jail with a combined bail of $8,000.

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com

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