The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office responded to a burglary at the Maritime Farms convenience store on Main Street, Newcastle Monday after an employee reported that the rear door had been forced upon and the store’s safe broken into. The employee placed the call at around 4 a.m.
An investigation of the premises revealed that the outside telephone lines had been severed, the alarm panel knocked out, and the store’s safe broken into by power tools. Maritime Farms reports that several cartons of cigarettes and approximately $20,000 were stolen.
The Sheriff’s Office believes that the burglary is connected with at least 25 other robberies that have occurred at stores from New Hampshire to Bangor over the past few months. In each case the robbers chose a similar target and used similar breaking and entering methods. According to LCSO Lt. Michael Murphy, the Sheriff’s Office has a few leads in the case and is currently working with agencies all over the state.
Those who work at Maritime Farms are meanwhile trying to move on after what they feel is a violation of their security and peace of mind.
“It’s difficult to come to work,” said store manager Jennifer Lafrance, “Monday was pretty bad, but today has been better than yesterday. I want all the businesses in the area to know what happened so they can be better prepared.”
The robbery, according to Lafrance, occurred at 12:15 a.m. Monday morning. “They knew what they were doing,” she said. “They were very professional.”
According to Lafrance, the robbers made no attempts to steal anything other than cash and cigarettes. She hopes that the Maritime Farms central offices will look at improving security in their franchises in the near future.
The Sheriff’s Office is requesting information from anyone who may have been in the area between 11 p.m. Sunday, July 11, and 4 a.m. Monday July 12, and may have seen any suspicious vehicles or persons in the vicinity. Those with information about the robbery should contact Detective Ron Rollins of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office at 882-7332.
