Ashley L. Conti | BDN
Bangor City Hall is seen in a June 2017 file photo.
A contractor working at Bangor City Hall is accused of stealing N95 masks intended for emergency responders and has been charged with theft.
Jonathan McCue, 31, of Bangor allegedly took the N95 respirator masks from the Risk Management/Finance Office overnight Wednesday and planned to resell them. The theft was discovered Thursday, according to Bangor police. McCue was identified as the alleged thief after investigators reviewed security footage.
Courtesy of Penobscot County Jail
Jonathan McCue, 31, of Bangor is charged with theft after he allegedly stole N95 masks from Bangor City Hall while working for a company refurbishing windows in the building.
A widespread shortage of the masks, which filter out air particles that can carry the coronavirus, has left health care workers and first responders in short supply for treating coronavirus patients. Infected patients can transmit the virus to people in close proximity through respiratory droplets released when coughing, sneezing or speaking. The mask shortage has led to a number of examples of hoarding and price-gouging.
McCue is charged with Class C theft. He allegedly stole 50 N95 masks — which are certified to filter out at least 95 percent of very small air particles — and 30 dust masks, according to Bangor City Manager Cathy Conlow.
McCue was not employed by the city but was working for a firm hired by the city to refurbish windows in the building.
The equipment had been locked up at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis to ensure the city had enough equipment to protect its first responders, Conlow said.
“I am extremely disappointed that someone would break into the PPE stores of the city for the purposes of reselling the material for personal profit,” she said Friday. “This individual had been working in the building without incident for several months and it is shocking that he would have broken into our PPE stores.”
There have been two to four people working on the window rehab project in the evening hours for the past eight months, Conlow said.
McCue is scheduled to make his first court appearance at 1 p.m. Friday remotely from the Penobscot County Jail.
If convicted, McCue faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
