ADDISON COUNTY — Vermont State Police in the New Haven barracks in the past week reported two car crashes, one in which a Shoreham man was killed, and a theft from a store. Troopers also responded to a report that a Middlebury man brandished a gun and threatened to shoot the owner of a Leicester scrap metal business.
VSP reports that Kadia J. Barenbaum, 56, went to Brandon Scrap Metal on Route 7 in Leicester on Wednesday, Jan. 20, became irate when they couldn’t inspect his car, waved one handgun around and showed employees a second gun and wrote a note threatening the owner of the business. Barenbaum apparently drove south to the Champlain Beverage store where he showed the gun and yelled that he was going to “shoot up” Brandon Scrap Metal and Brandon House of Pizza, according to a police affidavit.
Barenbaum returned to Brandon Scrap Metal, but employees locked the door and turned out the lights. VSP, Middlebury police, Addison County sheriff’s deputies and state game wardens looked for Barenbaum the rest of the day. He was taken into custody at 1 a.m. on Jan. 21 in Rutland, jailed at the Marble Valley Correctional Facility, arraigned later that day and released on $2,500 bail.
Barenbaum pleaded innocent to a felony count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and to a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment. See the full story here.
Meanwhile, Thomas Scheufler, 66, was killed in a two-vehicle collision on Route 125 in Bridport on Wednesday, Jan. 20. VSP reported that 21-year-old Shelby Fernandez of Ticonderoga, N.Y., was driving a RAV4 westbound on Route 125 when his vehicle crossed the centerline and crashed head-on into Scheufler’s eastbound Pontiac Vibe. Scheufler was pronounced dead at the scene, while Fernandez was taken to Porter Hospital for treatment of knee pain and later released, according to state police. Deborah Hawkins, 66, of Shoreham, a passenger in Scheufler’s car who was identified as his wife, was also taken to Porter for treatment of rib pain. She, too, was later released.
A section of Route 125 between Route 22A and the Champlain Bridge was closed for around five hours that Wednesday evening. A full story appeared in Monday’s Addison Independent; click here to see it.
Separately, on Jan. 19 at a little before 2 p.m., state police learned of a one-car rollover crash on Lincoln Road in Bristol — a road that was described as wet, slushy and snowy. The driver, identified as Natalie Sargent, 20, of Lincoln, told a trooper that she was driving a 2000 Subaru Legacy approximately 20 mph when she began to slide. In an effort to correct, Sargent said, she applied her brakes, but lost control and the car overturned. Sargent, who was wearing a seat belt, sustained minor injuries — lower back pain and pain in her face — as a result of the crash, and her car sustained moderate damage. State police do not believe alcohol or drugs played a factor in the crash.
Finally, on Saturday, Jan. 23, Aubuchon Hardware in Ferrisburgh reported to state police the theft of a knife, and said that 45-year-old Scott Lepri of Vergennes was seen on camera pocketing the knife. Troopers met with Lepri at his home and report that he promptly turned the knife over without incident. Police cited Lepri for retail theft.