A Standish man is facing a slew of charges after he allegedly broke into a Waterboro house, took a shower, dressed himself in the homeowner’s clothes and prepared himself some food.
Police say 35-year-old Derek Tarbox was sitting on the couch watching television when a resident of the house on Bennett Hill Road returned home around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Tarbox convinced the resident that he mistook the house for his friend’s house and had the man drive him home.
“The (resident) thought the scenario was unusual, but plausible, so he agreed to drive the man to a house in Hollis,” York County Sheriff Bill King said. “He said he wanted to get the man out of his house, so he agreed to drive him ‘home.'”
After dropping Tarbox off in Hollis, the man returned to his home to discover the back door had been forced open and the house ransacked, which he had not previously noticed. There were also signs Tarbox had showered and eaten food, King said.
King said the bizarre incident started when Tarbox stole a car in Portland and ran out of gas in Hollis, where he stole another car and drove it to Bennett Hill Road, where he drove off the road and crashed into the wood. Tarbox then walked to the house on Bennett Hill Road and broke in through the rear door.
Investigators went to the house in Hollis where Tarbox had been dropped off and were told that relatives had driven him to a house in Limerick. When deputies from the sheriff’s office and Maine State Police troopers when to the house in Limerick, Tarbox fled but was quickly apprehended without further incident, King said.
Tarbox was still wearing the clothes taken from the house in Waterboro.
Tarbox was arrested and charged with Class B burglary, two counts of unauthorized use of property, leaving the scene of a property damage accident, failure to report an accident by quickest means and theft by unauthorized taking. He remains at York County Jail on a combined bail of $8,000.
Tarbox is expected to be arraigned Wednesday and is expected to appear in Alfred Superior Court on Feb. 8.
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