Pot-theft suspects didn't know plants were cops'

RUMFORD - One of two men charged Wednesday afternoon with stealing marijuana from the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency said he grabbed a plant from the unmarked truck just to check out if it really was pot.

Travis Child of Peru and Jeremy Belskis of Rumford, both 20 years old, were taken into custody about 4:30 p.m. at Child and Sons Auto Sales on Hancock Street in Rumford by Rumford officers Matthew Noyes and Eric Lippincott while a plainclothes agent stood by, officers said.

Child said in a telephone interview late Wednesday night that he and Belskis saw an unmarked Dodge pickup truck driving through town about 4 p.m.

"It had a bunch of marijuana plants in it," and that looked suspicious, so the pair decided to follow it, Child said.

"We stopped at a stop sign, and I was going to go and grab one of the plants to see what it was. So I grabbed one of the plants. At first, I ran back to my buddy's car. I just wanted to know what it was," he said.

When the pickup truck driver started after them, Child said Belskis, who was driving, took off with the pickup in pursuit.

"He tries to ram our car. We didn't even know he was a cop or we would have stopped. We thought he was a dope dealer. It never crossed our mind that it was a DEA agent. We were just following him through town."

Child said it was a scary ride trying to get away from the pickup driver as they drove through streets and over curbs.

"We pulled into this garage on Hancock Street. I got out and was ready to fight him. I thought he was going to attack me. I thought it was a guy who was mad we stole his pot plant.

"He had a gun drawn on us and told us to get down. We got right on the ground, and he came over and did the routine and brought us to jail," Child said. "He never identified himself, no badges, no nothing."

He said after uniformed officers pulled into the garage he knew it must have been a drug agent.

Asked if he knew if the plant was marijuana, he said, "After I grabbed it I did. I didn't even keep it."

He admitted, "It was a bad decision on our part. It was stupid."

He said he and Belskis were just driving around with nothing to do and when they saw the truck driving all around Mexico and Rumford with the plants, he said he thought to himself, "You might as well check it out. I guess we just checked it out a little too much."

Bail commissioner Robert Grinnell said both men were released from the Rumford Police Station lockup Wednesday night: Child on $200 cash and Belskis on $100 cash. They are scheduled for arraignment at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 6 at Rumford District Court on a misdemeanor charge of theft of drugs, he said.

Rumford police and MDEA agents supervisor Tony Milligan deferred comment to MDEA Division I Commander Ken T. Pike in Portland, who did not respond to messages left on his cell phone Wednesday night.

Quoted from http://www.sunjournal.com/story/228395-3/RiverValley/Pottheft_suspects_didnt_know_plants_were_cops/:

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