A 32-year-old Portland man who police say robbed a gas station and a bank in South Portland this week before stealing and crashing a bystander’s car faces multiple charges.

A Nissan Altima flipped and hit a utility pole on Main Street in South Portland on Thursday after being stolen by a man who robbed the nearby Town & Country Credit Union, said police. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Jonathan W. Hines is charged with two counts of felony robbery, two counts of theft and one count each of theft and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, South Portland police said Friday.

Police say they believe Hines robbed the Irving Circle K at 690 Main St. shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday. Police said Hines was armed with a knife, and fled with an unknown amount of cash.

On Thursday, police were called at about 10 a.m. to the Town and Country Federal Credit Union at 557 Main St., where a man had gone inside, threatened employees with a knife and demanded cash.

Police say the robber was Hines, and that after he left the credit union, he stole a vehicle and fled north on Main Street. Police say Hines drove the Nissan Altima off the road and snapped a utility pole. Hines then fled but was apprehended a short distance away in a cemetery.

Hines was treated at Maine Medical Center on Thursday evening before he was booked into the Cumberland County Jail on $100,000 cash bail.

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The car belonged to Bill Talley of South Portland, who had parked across Main Street from the credit union and walked past a large man in sweat pants carrying a knapsack who had just left the building.

The man went directly for Talley’s running car, got in and drove away. Talley, still shocked, kept walking toward the bank, but the staff had locked the door.

A woman in the bank met him at the door, and Talley told her the suspect had taken off with his vehicle. She had Talley come around to the drive-thru window, and slipped him her phone through the teller window and he called police.

“The next thing I knew the cops were pulling up in the parking lot,” Talley said in an interview. “I told the officer what had happened, and I could hear in his cruiser (on the police radio) that the car had hit a pole.”

His car was destroyed, but Talley said it wasn’t worth his or anyone else’s life.

“It was awful, but I’m thinking back about it, if he hadn’t stolen my car, he might have hurt somebody else. He might have threatened somebody else,” Talley said. “I pray for that man. If he’s stealing that money, he obviously needed it. I said a little prayer that I hope he gets whatever he needs, not the money.”

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