Man arrested in bizarre parking dispute at Chamber

A 60-year-old was arrested Thursday morning after police said he put city barricades he'd taken from the street and human feces in the paved area next to the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce's office.  

Bruce Edward Mclain of Havre is listed on the jail roster on eight counts of theft, criminal trespass to property and disorderly conduct. His bond is $7,000.

Mclain was arrested a second time after he bonded out Thursday afternoon. Among reasons for the warrant, the warrant request says, he followed an officer to a restaurant "and confronted him in front of people."

Sgt. Kevin Corner of the Havre Police said officers found the barricades near the Chamber - there were christmas lights wrapped around them - a bench that had been taken from the grocery store across the street, and a bucket and frying pan, both containing what was most likely human feces, in the paved corner area off Fifth Avenue and Second Street.

People who drove by earlier in the morning said they had seen the setup in front of the Chamber office.

The frying pan, Corner said, also contained cotton and "some kind of blue syrup" along with the feces.

Corner said the man didn't want people to park there.

"He said that's his parking spot and he didn't want anyone parking in it," Corner said.

Mclain told officers that he lives in an apartment above the Chamber's office.

Mclain was anything but combative - he was completely cooperative and a "very nice gentleman," Corner said.

Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Debbie Vandeberg said she arrived at the office at 8:30 a.m. to find the unusual scene and called the police right away.

"It was crazy bizarre," she said.

She told Corner there was duct tape on the lettering of the office door as well.

Vandeberg said she doesn't know Mclain or anything about him.

The barricades and the bench were put back and the bucket and frying pan removed before 10 a.m., leaving only a blue splotch on the pavement in front of the building.