Brass Propellers The brass propellers stolen from Southport May 16 by Waldoboro resident Benjamin York, who used this truck, lie on the side of the road on Lakeside Drive after they fell off the truck.

Thanks to a doubtful onlooker, Boothbay Harbor police were able to arrest a Waldoboro man for stealing two brass propellers worth between $25,000 and $30,000 apiece from a Southport Island residence Wednesday afternoon, May 16.

Benjamin York, 45, was arrested by BHPD Officer Richard Mirabile and charged with the Class B felony. Mirabile said other misdemeanor charges may be pending. He was brought to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset, where his bail was posted later on Wednesday.

The ordeal unfolded when Hugh Thompson of Southport, who was at Robinson's Wharf, saw York "looking around" the property off Route 238 where the propellers, owned by David Winslow, were being stored.

"The guy, who was supposedly a scrap metal dealer, had asked Allan James [who lives in the area] about the wheels [propellers] a couple of days earlier," said Thompson. "David had told me that the wheels weren't for sale but when I saw him [York] that day, he was loading the wheels on the back of the flatbed truck."

Thompson said he got into his vehicle to check out the situation but when the 1995 white Chevy truck that York was operating didn't slow down as he sped past Thompson, who had pulled to the side of the road, Thompson said he knew "something was up."

"I called the Communication center in the Harbor to report what I thought was going on, talked to Mirabile, and he said he was on his way," said Thompson.

Thompson said he followed the truck across the Southport bridge into Boothbay Harbor.

"By the time I caught up to him, he had pulled onto Lakeside Drive and I saw that the props had fallen off the truck and were on the side of the road. I kept trailing him and luckily, there were two cars stopped in the middle of the road near Richard Christopher's house [about 100 yards onto Lakeside Drive], and he couldn't get through."

Thompson said when he caught up to the truck, he got out of his vehicle to talk to York.

"I asked him what he was doing," said Thompson. "He told me that he had purchased the propellers and that he needed to turn around and get them. I told him that I would I let him turn around but that I had called the police." Thompson said York didn't believe he had called the police and he turned the truck around to retrieve the propellers. That's when Mirabile, and a short while later, Officer Jody Lewis arrived at the scene.

"He had already latched onto the propellers when we arrived," said Mirabile.

Mirabile said that York had borrowed the truck from a friend. He said York may also be charged for damaging the truck and for damaging the property where the propellers landed along Lakeside Drive.

Thompson said that Winslow intends to use the propellers for a display in tribute to his late father, Captain Eliot Winslow.