NEW GLOUCESTER — Police say an Auburn man accused of burglary told a homeowner he was checking her house for a gas leak when he climbed through a window and then went out the front door.

Thirty-one-year-old Christopher Welch was arrested Friday. Police told the Sun Journal that a New Gloucester woman watched from outside her home as a man entered through a window and then came out the front door. When she asked him what he was doing, Welch allegedly told her he was checking for a gas leak and then drove off in a Webber Energy service van.

Police stopped the van soon after and arrested Welch. Authorities say he broke into the home in search of prescription medications.