AUGUSTA — People who think they lost property to the North Pond Hermit will have a chance to identify and reclaim it Saturday.
The opportunity to regain the items seized from the campsite of Christopher T. Knight, the man charged with several recent burglaries and suspected of committing more than 1,000 of them over the past 27 years, is part of a public meeting arranged by Maeghan Maloney, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties.
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Maloney’s office is prosecuting Knight in connection with reported burglaries and thefts in the past six years.
The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Troop C State Police Barracks, 162 West Front St., Skowhegan.
“There will be an opportunity to ask questions, make comments, and see the items seized from Mr. Knight’s tent-site in order to claim any that belong to you,” Maloney wrote to camp owners.
She said she sent it to those who contacted her in the wake of the nationwide publicity about Knight’s arrest about 1 a.m. April 4 as he was leaving Pine Tree Camp in Rome, his backpack and a gym bag laden with items from the camp’s freezer and kitchen, as well as tools. The stolen property was valued at $425.38, according to court documents.
At the time, Knight told Maine State Police Trooper Diane Perkins-Vance and Sgt. Terry Hughes of the Maine Warden Service that he had lived alone in the woods for about 27 years, speaking only once to another person when he had a brief encounter with a passing hiker in the 1990s.
Knight’s tale brought him sympathy from some people, including some victims, but others viewed him as a criminal who preyed on their property. He has inspired songs and is the topic of a film-making project.
Knight later led investigators to his campsite near Little North Pond, and items seized there are being kept in an evidence locker at the Skowhegan barracks, Maloney said.
Perkins-Vance will be at the meeting as well, Maloney said. Maloney said she contacted camp owners through the various homeowner and road associations in that area.
Private camp owners in the Belgrade Lakes area, including North Pond, Little North Pond and East Pond, have talked of repeated break-ins and thefts of food, propane tanks, sleeping bags, and numerous other items.
They also spoke of feeling as though they were being watched, given that the break-ins occurred just after they had provisioned their camps.
Knight told police he had left his home around 1986 and had survived since then by stealing things from private homes as well as from Pine Tree Camp, a nonprofit camp for disabled children and adults.
Over the years, some homeowners and investigators caught images of the thief, using surveillance cameras; however, no suspect ever was identified until this year.
Items taken from the area of the tent site include medical supplies, jewelry, a wallet, cooking supplies, clothes, boots, electronics, flashlights, a backpack, magazines, books, adult entertainment, food, tents, camping gear coolers, propane tanks, alcoholic beverages, clothes and camping gear.
Knight remains in the Kennebec County jail, charged with two counts each of burglary and theft at Pine Tree Camp and at a privately owned camp in Rome. The charges are pending in Kennebec County Superior Court.
His attorney, Walter McKee, said Wednesday, “We will not be making any comment.”
Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com
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