CLINTON — Police are investigating a handful of car burglaries that occurred towards the end of June.
Detective Robert McFetridge said a total of six cars were reportedly broken into around June 23. Four were reported on June 24, and the remaining two were reported on June 26. McFetridge said it didn’t appear that anything of value had been stolen from the cars. Some things were taken out of the cars and thrown around. Credit cards and concert tickets were found in the yards or driveways of the houses where the cars were targeted.
“They could have been looking for something specific,” he said. “I’m not sure exactly what they were looking for.”
All the cars were unlocked when they were entered, and McFetridge said all the burglaries happened overnight, likely after midnight but before a Clinton officer would come on at 6 a.m. He said he didn’t know if it was the work of a single person, a group, or multiple different people acting independently. Generally, he said incidents like this are the work of one person going from vehicle to vehicle looking for something specific.
“They didn’t leave a lot of physical evidence behind,” he said.
The burglaries occurred in the areas of Pleasant Street and Mutton Lane. Since the June 26 reports, McFetridge said there have been no more reports. The burglaries occurred on the same night as a slew of others in nearby Fairfield, where several cars were broken into on Gordon Place, as were others on High Street, Elm Street, Main Street and Highland Avenue, according to police. Fairfield Officer Casey Dugas said nearly 20 cars were broken into then, but there haven’t been any more reported cases since.
As with the Clinton incidents, all the cars burglarized were unlocked. In most cases, cash and loose items were stolen from the Fairfield cars. Dugas said the case is still under investigation, but they are at a standstill until new leads come in.
McFetridge said the best way to prevent car burglaries is to lock the car doors, since whoever was going through the cars didn’t break into them.
“If the vehicle was locked, they weren’t going into it,” he said.
Colin Ellis — 861-9253
cellis@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @colinoellis
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