BELFAST, Maine — Police are urging residents to be vigilant and not leave wallets, purses or valuables in open sight in unattended vehicles after a December car burglary in Belfast has been linked to an East Coast burglary gang.
The so-called “Felony Lane Gang” has been active in southern Maine, New Hampshire and other states, according to Sgt. Bryan Cunningham of the Belfast Police Department. That name derives from the way the burglars use the lane farthest from the bank teller’s window when they drive up to make financial transactions with stolen checks, debit cards and identifications.
“Using the identity from one burglar, they are cashing checks and making bank withdrawals using the cards and checks from others,” Cunningham wrote in a media release issued Friday morning. “Stolen license plates and wigs are used to thwart identifying the individuals.”
The gang has been working the East Coast for several months, he said, targeting vehicles left at fitness centers, YMCAs and anywhere people are known to leave behind wallets or other valuables.
“You know how people go to the gym and leave everything in their car?” Cunningham said. “In Belfast, the burglars broke a window to get it. If you leave stuff in plain sight, it’s not a fishing expedition anymore. It’s, ‘Oh look, there’s a purse.’”
He declined to say where the Dec. 18 Belfast break-in occurred. Local police learned this break-in was connected to the Felony Lane Gang when some checks stolen in Belfast were cashed in southern Maine. Suspects arrested in connection with a New Hampshire burglary were tied to those stolen checks, he said.
Cunningham said he recently received information about the gang from a southern Maine police department, which he is not naming.
Police in Falmouth and Freeport at the end of December were looking into whether a series of vehicle break-ins at fitness centers in those communities were connected to the Felony Lane Gang. The Florida-based group reportedly is traveling the country and breaking into cars parked at gyms, fitness centers and day care centers, according to police there.
“It’s going to be more of an FBI and Secret Service thing, because it’s crossed state lines,” Cunningham said Friday.
Sometimes the burglars ask local people to cash stolen checks or make withdrawals using stolen cards, promising them a portion of the money, he said.
“It’s elaborate. It works,” Cunningham said of the scheme.