Cleaning Man Faces Felony Charges

Instead of being “a two-fisted grimefighter,” like Mr. Clean, a cleaning service employee from Allenstown is facing felony charges after allegedly stealing items from two local businesses his company was hired to sanitize.

Paul Therrien, 36, of Allenstown, was arrested at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 16, and charged with burglary and theft by unauthorized taking or transfer, both felonies. 

According to court documents, on June 3, an officer was assigned to investigate two different theft incidents – a burglary at Say It In Stitches on Hall Street from December 2012, and an incident from Granite State College on Hall Street on Jan. 28. 

In the Say It In Stitches case, between $1,000 and $1,500 in cash was reportedly stolen from the store, along with $31 from an Concord-Merrimack County SPCA canister; at the college, a briefcase with a MacBook laptop, glasses, a car key, and other items, all valued at around $2,700. 

The officers who were sent to the initial calls reported no forced entry in the store or the college. The college theft occurred in a secure faculty room. A pass card was needed to enter the college after hours. The only person with a key, other than employees, were Therrien, who was working for Jan-Pro Cleaners, and the owners of the cleaning business, according to court documents. 

The owners of Say It In Stitches noted that the cleaning business contract was terminated around Thanksgiving 2012 but the store key had still not been returned. 

On Aug. 29, a detective and an officer spoke with Therrien about his employment with the company cleaning offices. Therrien reportedly informed the officers that he had now bought into the franchise and at one point, had about 15 accounts, and had been working for the business about five or six years. Therrien reportedly confirmed that he was responsible for cleaning both the store and the college, and acknowledged that the store had dropped its contract with the company.

According to court documents, during the course of their interview with Therrien, he allegedly admitted to taking a purse with the laptop from the college. When asked about the cash theft from the store, Therrien allegedly admitted to taking “a few things but stated he couldn’t remember what he had taken.” Later in the interview, he allegedly admitted to taking “between $200 and $300” from a cash register as well as an iPod speaker/charger. 

Therrien was later arrested and since he was being held at the Merrimack County House of Corrections on other charges, was arraigned remotely on Sept. 17.

According to the state of New Hampshire, Therrien is a registered sex offender who was convicted in 1998 of felonious sexual assault on a victim 13 or older and under 16 with an age difference of more than three years, two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, and sexual assault. He was also convicted in 1997 of simple assault, and violation of protective custody, willful concealment, and criminal trespassing in 1996. In 1995, when he was 18, Therrien was convicted of three counts of violation of protective custody and theft by unauthorized taking.