VIENNA -- When a few tons of iron, steel and aluminum disappeared from his machine shop Saturday night, Joseph Lord knew the thieves would return for more.

After all, they hadn't finished the job.

He was right. Around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, they reappeared. And Lord was prepared.

After going 56 hours without sleep, Lord walked back to his Kimball Pond Road shop -- the third time Tuesday morning he had checked the premises -- and saw a blue Ford pickup parked near the building with 450 pounds of scrap metal in the truck's bed.

"They evidently see me, and they took off," Lord said.

His shotgun loaded with buckshot, Lord shot out the truck's tires and windshield, preventing the thieves' escape.

"I shot out both front tires. I put three rounds through the radiator," he said. "I put two through the windshield. I put the rear window out and put seven pellets through the seat.

"If they'd been there, they'd been dead. I know how to shoot, I shoot pretty accurate and I have buckshot."

Startled at the succession of gunshots, Lord said a neighbor showed up at his house to check on the situation. Lord instructed the neighbor to call police.

"They showed up in quick order," Lord said.

In a statement, Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said deputies examined the truck's registration and contacted the owner, trying to determine the thieves' identities.

"We have two good suspects," Liberty said late Tuesday afternoon. He said he expected an arrest to be imminent.

From the time his metal first disappeared on Saturday, Lord said he was bracing for the thieves' return.

"I knew they'd be back," he said Tuesday afternoon. "If they had taken it all, they wouldn't be back."

On Tuesday morning after his vigil of more than two days, Lord said he was attempting to get some shut-eye.

"From the time I discovered it Saturday night until noontime today, I've been waiting," Lord said on Tuesday. "I just got so tired I had to lay down and have a nap."

But sleep didn't come easily.

"It's bothered me so bad, I couldn't sleep because I knew they were coming back," he said.

Lord said he expects scrap-metal thieves will now think twice before striking in Vienna again.

"I think I did the town a favor," he said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811,

Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com