CONCORD TOWNSHIP — A New Hampshire building contractor is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever broke into his home in Concord Township and made off with an estimated $3,500 in tools and equipment.

Stephen Marchuk, 51, said he locked up the house two days after Thanksgiving last year and did not return until July 9, when he found the building had been burglarized.

“I figured disgruntled friends, disgruntled girlfriend, family members — somebody — somebody might say something,” he said. “Somebody knows something.”

He asked anyone with information to call the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department at 474-9591. Deputy Ritchie Putnam is investigating the report. Skowhegan police also have been alerted to the incident.

Marchuk said there were no signs of forced entry in the burglary.

“Somebody had keys. They either have them or they located my keys that I had outside from watching me,” he said. “There were no breaking-and-entering marks — not a scratch, not a dent, not a broken nothing. There weren’t any windows jimmied. Everything was keyed, dead-bolted and locked.”

Marchuk said he found drag marks across the floor of the house from a shed where a new Honda EV 3000 generator had been stored. Also taken were heavy-duty four-wheeler ramps, a chain saw, an air compressor, socket wrenches and other tools.

Marchuk said the home is an old red farmhouse on Fletcher Mountain Road, which is a posted and gated private road. He said he bought the house seven years ago after the previous owner, Don Folsom, had died.

He now owns 320 acres in the area.

There is no power to the house and no running water.

“I’m a mile off the power grid and I’m happy to stay there,” he said.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

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