Bangor police say the Saturday night kidnapping is not part of a larger human trafficking ring, despite claims to the contrary on Facebook.
In a Monday morning Facebook post, the Bangor Police Department said a kidnapping at the Target off Stillwater Avenue was not part of a larger kidnapping ring despite the use of a U-Haul moving van. Police said Colby Cooper, 21, who was arrested and charged with kidnapping, eluding and domestic violence assault, arrived at the store with the unnamed woman he allegedly kidnapped.
Cooper allegedly forced a woman, whom police did not identify, into a U-Haul rental van in the Target parking lot at about 10 p.m, according to Sgt. Jason McAmbley, a spokesperson for the Bangor Police Department.
The Brewer man then fled north on Stillwater Avenue, while witnesses to the abduction followed him and gave updates on his location to police, McAmbley said late Saturday night. Witnesses lost track of Cooper after he turned onto Kelley Road and headed toward Veazie.
Police spotted Cooper a short time later traveling south on Interstate 95 and pursued him onto Interstate 395 before he stopped near exit 2, McAmbley said.
Cooper was arrested and taken to the Penobscot County Jail.
In the Monday morning Facebook post, police said the woman and Cooper knew each other “very well” and arrived together at Target.
“Later, one of them decided that they should no longer be together, and that culminated in an incident that the charges are based,” Bangor police said in the post.
The department cautioned people to refrain from believing everything they read on Facebook about crime in Bangor.
“Think it through: IF abductors were to pick a great place to ply their trade, a well-lit and highly video-recorded location would not be first on the list. Yes, Facebook makes each story larger than life. That’s what people do on Facebook,” retired Bangor police Lt. Tim Cotton wrote in the post.
Cooper has not yet made his first appearance in court to answer the charges.
