A Texas man has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $400,000 from a Maine couple while they were on vacation.

Kyle Lawless Pollar, 27, entered his plea to four counts of wire fraud Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

In August 2022, Pollar called the couple’s bank pretending to be the account holder and requested the account’s balance and updated the contact phone number, the U.S. attorney’s office said Tuesday. Shortly after, Pollar changed the contact email address as well.

Over a two-week period, Pollar made several transfers from the couple’s home equity line of credit to their savings account. Pollar then made four wire transfers totalling $360,880 to a Texas bank account in his name, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Pollar transferred $66,000 from one transfer to a jeweler, also in Texas.

The U.S. attorney’s office said that Pollar withdrew funds from his account in cash and cashier’s checks. He then deposited the cashier’s checks in other Texas bank accounts in his name.

He was captured on security camera making deposits and withdrawals, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The couple discovered the theft when they returned from vacation and couldn’t log into their bank account. When the bank reset their username and password, they found multiple wire transfers on their statement.

The FBI began investigating in October 2022.

Pollar faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 for each of the four counts of wire fraud, as well as up to three years of supervised release. He also will be ordered to pay restitution to the victims.

Mainers like to hold onto local secrets like precious jewels. The best place to get pizza. The best place to watch the sun rise or set. Secret parking spots that people from away don’t know about.

It’s the same with grocery stores — not just the big chains that dominate the state, but also the little mom-and-pop grocers in towns and cities from Stockholm to Shapleigh. Who’s got the cheapest eggs? The best cuts of meat? A great deli? Farm-fresh produce? There’s a good chance one of your local markets has got at least one of those.

We want to know: what are your favorite hidden gem markets in Maine, and what in particular do they specialize in selling? Let us know in the form below, or leave a comment. We’ll follow up with a story featuring your answers in a few days. We’ll try to keep it just between us Mainers, but we can’t guarantee a few out-of-staters won’t catch on to these local secrets.

A current Bangor city councilor is running in a special election for an open seat in the Legislature, which Rep. Joe Perry left to become Maine’s treasurer.

Carolyn Fish, who’s serving her first term on the Bangor City Council, announced in a Jan. 4 Facebook post that she’s running as a Republican to represent House District 24, which covers parts of Bangor, Brewer, Orono and Veazie.

“I am not a politician, but what goes on in Augusta affects us here and it’s time to get involved,” Fish wrote in the post. “I am just a regular citizen of this community with a lineage of hard work, passion and appreciation for the freedom and liberties we have in this community and state.”

Fish’s announcement comes roughly two weeks after Sean Faircloth, a former Democratic state lawmaker and Bangor city councilor, announced he’s running as a Democrat to represent House District 24.

The special election to fill Perry’s seat will take place on Feb. 25.

Fish, a local real estate agent, was elected to the Bangor city council in November 2023 and is currently serving a three-year term.

Fish previously told the Bangor Daily News that her family moved to the city when she was 13 and has worked in the local real estate industry since earning her real estate license when she was 28.

When she ran for the Bangor City Council in 2023, Fish expressed a particular interest in tackling homelessness and substance use in the community while bolstering economic development. To do this, she suggested reviving the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program in schools and creating a task force to identify where people who are homeless in Bangor came from.

Now, Fish said she sees small businesses and families of all ages struggling to make ends meet due to the rising cost of housing, groceries, child care, health care and other expenses. Meanwhile, the funding and services the government should direct to help is being “focused elsewhere,” she said.

“I feel too many of us are left behind and ignored,” Fish wrote in her Facebook post. “The complexities that got us here are multifaceted and the solutions aren’t always simple. But, I can tell you it’s time to try and I will do all I can to help improve things for a better future for all of us.”

Faircloth served five terms in the Maine House and Senate between 1992 and 2008, then held a seat on the Bangor City Council from 2014 to 2017, including one year as mayor. He also briefly ran for Maine governor in 2018 and for the U.S. House in 2002.

A mental health and child advocate, Faircloth founded the Maine Discovery Museum in Bangor and was the executive director of the city’s Together Place Peer Run Recovery Center until last year.

Fish did not return requests for comment Tuesday.