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By DOUG HARLOW
Staff Writer Thursday, July 19, 2007

"They used hairspray," Deputy Police Chief Steve Trahan said. "They tried to disable the alarm system using hairspray so they could see the alarm beam -- it tripped the alarm.

"They said they saw it on TV."

Arrested and charged as an adult was Brittany Blow, 18, of Clinton, according to Trahan. Also arrested on juvenile charges was a 17-year-old girl from Albion, whose name was not released because of her age.

Both girls are charged with burglary, a felony. They also are charged with misdemeanor theft and criminal mischief for damage done at Custom Color Creations, a tattoo shop in the former Marden's shoe store on Main Street, by the railroad bridge.

Trahan said Fairfield police Sgt. Matthew Bard and patrol Officer William Beaulieu received a call from Somerset County dispatchers reporting a security alarm sounding at 11 p.m. Monday at the shop at 71 Main St.

The officers found the front door intact, but discovered a rear window open. Police learned later that an air conditioner had been removed and its cord allegedly cut by the girls with a knife they had carried with them.

Bard and Beaulieu heard movement behind the building by the railroad tracks and saw someone dressed in black running down the tracks.

"Sgt. Bard gave chase and Officer Beaulieu got into a cruiser because the person was headed toward Burrill Street," Trahan said.

One of the girls was spotted wearing all black, sweating and out of breath. The other girl "popped up" in the woods and came out on her own, he said.

Blow was taken to the county jail in Skowhegan where bail was set Monday night at $2,500. She later made bail, according to a jail intake officer.

The younger girl was released to her parents.

Trahan said the girls allegedly were in the tattoo shop to steal jewelry used in some body piercing procedures. He said the tattoo shop had been broken into once before, in November, but the owners since have installed an expensive security alarm system.

The mistake the girls made was trying to use hairspray to disable the security system, Trahan said.

"They wanted to spray it so the fog would come out and they could see the beam from the alarm system, apparently so they could walk over it or avoid it or crawl under it," Trahan said. "Like on 'Charlie's Angels' or the movies.

"It's a good idea in theory, but you know, they got caught."

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