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Wilton, Maine man arrested in police-cruiser theft August 10, 2004 –by Betty Jesperse, Blethen Maine Newspaper WILTON -- A Wilton man who allegedly broke into the police station on Main Street early Monday morning, stole the keys to a cruiser and then wrecked the car later told an officer he was trying to get to the hospital to see a newborn, police said. Robert Bowden, 28, is being held without bail at the Franklin County jail on felony charges of burglary and theft, operating under the influence, and being a habitual offender, said Wilton police Officer Kevin McCutcheon. At about 1:30 a.m. Monday, Bowden, who was on probation on a burglary conviction, allegedly pried open a window at the station, found the car keys, and broke into one of the department's two cruisers, a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria, McCutcheon said. "Before he drove off, he locked the station back up. He told us he didn't want anybody to steal anything," the officer said. He allegedly drove down Main Street to East Wilton where he swerved off the road and landed in a hayfield. When he tried to get back on the asphalt, he drove over a ditch and tore out the car's radiator, the officer said. At the intersection with U.S. Route 2, he lost control of the car and crashed down a deep, muddy ditch. The car was extensively damaged. "He never had a license and told us that he couldn't keep that thing straight," McCutcheon said. A witness who reported seeing a man fleeing mistakenly identified the car as a Farmington cruiser, which sent officers from both agencies rushing to the scene. A wet and allegedly intoxicated Bowden surfaced about a mile down the road walking toward Franklin Memorial Hospital, where he was picked up by police. Claiming he needed medical attention, he confessed to the burglary and theft, saying there was a newborn at FMH he wanted to see, McCutcheon said. The baby's mother had taken out a protection from abuse order against Bowden, and FMH had alerted police earlier in the evening that he had said he was going to show up. |