Insulation moves with the wind through the four-foot hole in the wall of Carla and Peter Beaupre’s master bathroom. The window has fallen in. Their shower door rests at a 45-degree angle alongside collapsed drywall.
In their guest bedroom, dust and debris covers fallen furniture strewn about. A long gash along floorboards stretches into the living room, where they found one of their dogs trembling under a couch late Saturday evening.
The Beaupres came home over the weekend to find their Portage Lake residence torn apart and a swarm of police crowding Route 11. In the middle of the chaos, a man sat on top of a piece of logging equipment blocking traffic.
Gary Belanger, 63, of Portage Lake is accused of “maliciously destroying” the Beaupres’ house with a grapple skidder — a heavy duty piece of machinery equipped with a claw to pick up logs.
Police found Belanger on top of the skidder, where they reported he was “having hallucinations” and claimed not to know how the equipment ended up in the middle of the road.
“The most unsettling part was just the non-responsive nature that he had,” said Abraham Nelson, a witness who called police after coming across the scene while returning from an Allagash canoe trip. “He didn’t seem like he was angry or he wasn’t acting in a way that made it seem like his blood was hot. It was almost the opposite.”
The Aug. 8 incident was the culmination of a yearlong dispute between the Beaupres and Belanger over land rights in which both sides have claimed harassment.
The dispute stemmed from the married couple’s refusal to let Belanger transport felled logs from an adjacent property through an access road on their land, Carla and Peter Beaupre said in interviews with the Bangor Daily News.
The conflict escalated over time, leading to a series of arrests and a protection order barring Belanger from contact with the Beaupres.
Belanger was out on bail and facing misdemeanor charges from two other incidents involving the Beaupres when he allegedly drove the skidder onto their property and used it to shred portions of their house, a shed and a truck.
Belanger is also accused of damaging a 500-gallon propane tank on the property, leading to a leak that trapped the family’s two dogs inside the damaged home for hours while emergency personnel secured the scene.
He’s been charged with aggravated criminal mischief, criminal trespass and violating conditions of release and is being held in Aroostook County Jail on $10,000 bail — $40,000 less than what prosecutors recommended.
It’s a situation that both the Beaupres and Belanger’s family say was avoidable, though for different reasons.
In a previous confrontation in mid-July, the Beaupres described Belanger showing up at their property in the middle of the night walking around with a flashlight. When he returned later that day and was confronted by Peter Beaupre and a neighbor, Belanger threatened to take his skidder and “run it right through” their house, they said.
The Maine State Police arrested Belanger that day and charged him with criminal threatening, disorderly conduct and violating conditions of release. He was released on bail shortly after, and a month later made true on his alleged threat — a point the Beaupres quickly made to a sheriff’s deputy after seeing their house in ruin, court records noted.
“When I saw the house, I thought I was having a heart attack,” Carla Beaupre said. “We told them what he said, and he did exactly what he said he was going to do. The system failed us.”
In a phone interview with the BDN Thursday, Lori Belanger, Gary Belanger’s wife, said she was “truly sorry” for her husband’s alleged actions, but said that he “flipped” because of “continual harassment and false claims,” and a lack of help from law enforcement.
She told police that Peter Beaupre had harassed her husband and sabotaged his equipment. The Beaupres “absolutely” denied those claims and prosecutors have filed no charges related to them, according to court records.
“No one deserves to have their home destroyed, especially with the cost of living these days. I wouldn’t wish something like that on anyone,” Belanger said. “That being said, it is also not right for a human being to continually be harassed by another person to the point of breakdown.
“During all this time, my husband got some really bad medical news that he has to deal with,” she said. “So you put everything together and as a result, my husband snapped.”
Bail stipulations for Gary Belanger handed down in Presque Isle District Court include 24/7 house arrest and a GPS ankle monitor. The Beaupres don’t believe it’s enough. They want Belanger to remain in jail.
“I want justice,” Carla Beaupre said.
“The system is not protecting the victims,” her husband added.
The Beaupres are staying with neighbors as they assess how to move forward. Walking around his property Wednesday evening, Peter Beaupre came to tears as he pointed out the house’s collapsed back deck. He had finished building it three weeks earlier.
The house is insured and the couple plans to rebuild. But the shock of seeing their home destroyed is difficult to move past, they said.
“Every time I see it, I cry,” Peter Beaupre said. “I’m a grown-ass man, and I cry.”
