OXFORD — The owner of a residence on Fish Hook Road interrupted a burglary in process when she and her daughter returned from running errands Tuesday afternoon to find two men ransacking their house.

The homeowner arrived at her house near Thompson Lake shortly after 2 p.m. to find an unfamiliar white car in her driveway and men carrying her family’s belongings out the front door, according to a police report by Oxford Police Lt. Michael Ward. 

Both she and her daughter suspected the men had broken into the house and called 911, according to the report.

In an attempt to flee the scene, the suspects accidentally rammed their getaway car, a white Chrysler Sebring sedan, into the owner’s vehicle, then drove the sedan into a ditch and stranding it. The two suspects then fled on foot, according to Ward. 

One of the suspects, Bruce Allen Martin, 26, was apprehended later Tuesday afternoon after police, with the assistance of a K-9 unit, tracked two sets of foot prints to a King Street residence less than a mile from the scene of the break-in.

Kristopher Bowie, 40, from Paris, the registered owner of the sedan contacted Oxford Police and agreed to come into the police station Wednesday afternoon to discuss the incident, Ward said. 

A collection of household items, including a guitar, assorted jewelery, binoculars, CDs, headphones and a backpack worth approximately $2,900 was recovered from the scene, according to Ward’s report.

Police investigated several other residences in the area after homeowners reported suspicious foot prints in the snow  around their homes but found no evidence of other break-ins, Ward reported.

Officers from Norway Police Department, State Police, and Oxford and Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Offices cooperated in a successful joint effort to locate and apprehend Martin, Ward said. 

Martin was charged with burglary class B and theft class C at his appearance in South Paris District Court Tuesday afternoon and released on $500 cash bail.

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