The employees of two Rt. 1 Newcastle businesses are perplexed after a mysterious car theft and subsequent collision the morning of July 19.
Shortly before 7 a.m., two Bath Iron Works employees and Mike’s Place regulars came into the store to buy coffee for the morning commute, employee Dana Brown said.
The men left and quickly returned, telling bystanders to “call 911” because someone stole their pickup truck.
The truck didn’t make it far. After pulling onto Rt. 1, it traveled south to Newcastle Chrysler Dodge Jeep, left the roadway, “bounced over the curb,” narrowly avoided a pile of tires and hit a vehicle on the dealership’s lot, causing minor damage to both vehicles, General Manager Bruce Haines said.
The dealership’s security cameras caught most of the incident on tape. Mysteriously, however, neither the cameras nor a car carrier driver just yards away from the crash site saw anyone in the vehicle before the crash, or leaving the vehicle after the crash.
“There was nobody in it, but it was driven down that road,” Haines said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It must have been a ghost,” Brown said.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office did not return a message left July 19.
