A man sought by police in connection with a Westbrook robbery and a probation violation charge was captured in South Portland on Friday.

Portland police had been looking for Jamie Vandegraaf, 23, of Scarborough, and almost caught him on Munjoy Hill in Portland on Friday, but he slipped away. Members of the U.S. Marshal’s Service violent offender task force and South Portland police caught Vandegraaf in the Maine Mall area about 3:45 p.m. Friday.

Vandegraaf was wanted by Westbrook police as a suspect in the robbery and theft at the Shaw’s Supermarket in Westbrook on Tuesday.

He is on probation from a 2013 holdup of the TD Bank branch at 449 Forest Ave. in Portland. Vandegraaf had been sentenced in December 2013 to three years in that case, with all but 18 months suspended.

About 7 a.m. Friday, officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle on Sheridan Street in Portland. When they tried to pull it over, the driver sped off, police said.

The driver jumped from the moving car on Adams Street and was hit by the car, though he did not appear to have been injured, police said. Police learned later that he escaped from the area and caught a cab to South Portland.

Police believe the driver of the car on Sheridan Street was Vandegraaf and issued a photo of him, as well as a photo of one of his neck tattoos with the name “Chloe.” Police said he was later caught in South Portland.

In the Westbrook supermarket robbery, a store video showed a man with facial hair identical to Vandegraaf’s in the photo issued by police.

Portland police also are investigating a holdup Thursday night at the Nickelodeon Cinemas on Temple Street, and Buxton police are investigating a robbery at the Hannaford store in that town Thursday.

None of the police officials in the three communities would say whether the robberies are linked to each other or to Vandegraaf.

 

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