Four men were arrested Sunday as they were stripping a vacant Lebanon house of its copper piping, Maine State Police said.
Property managers who stopped to check on a home on Carl Broggi Highway discovered the burglary. The house is bank-owned because of foreclosure and has been vacant, state police said Monday.
Two of the alleged burglars were found inside the house, one was in a shed and the fourth was found in the woods behind the house, police said.
The men allegedly broke in through a rear door.
Copper pipes had already been removed from the house when the property manager arrived. The four men had also placed a television, household items and furniture in the garage as they prepared to remove the items from the property, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
There is water damage to the house because of cut pipes. McCausland estimated the burglars caused several thousand dollars in damage.
Charged with burglary are Cody Mros, 32, of South Berwick, William Kimball, 36, of Lebanon, Shawn Sullivan, 48, of Union, New Hampshire, and Benjamin Foster, 36, of Rochester, New Hampshire.
Two of the men gave false names to police and two were in possession of drug paraphernalia, McCausland said.
The men were taken to the York County Jail in Alfred and were scheduled to appear in Springvale District Court on Monday.
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