The Brunswick Police Department arrested a Topsham man on Saturday after he allegedly swapped a Brunswick man’s snowblower for a broken one while taking money to fix the stolen machine.
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At approximately 7:00 p.m., the Brunswick Police Department received a report that Benjamin Jacques, 44, of Topsham, had allegedly swapped a Brunswick resident’s snowblower for a broken one.
The caller explained that he found Jacques on the Nextdoor app and made arrangements for Jacques to fix his snowblower.
Jacques allegedly took the snowblower and returned a different one 12 days later, while accepting payment for repairs he failed to make.
The caller discovered that the snowblower was still not working after the allegedly fraudulent repairs and realized that the machine Jacques had returned was reportedly different from the one he had taken.
The caller contacted Jacques, who allegedly denied the allegation, and then called the police.
Police then used the snowblower’s serial number to determine that the machine returned by Jacques was allegedly not the one he had taken.
They then spoke with Jacques at his home and reportedly recovered the original snowblower, returning it to the caller.
Police arrested Jacques and charged him with theft by deception. He paid his $300 bail and is scheduled to appear in the West Bath District Court on February 3.
