Three suspects targeted boats, stores, and airlines in a mini spree of what police say was unrelated criminal activity.
DILLINGHAM: A string of burglaries and thefts in Dillingham starting last week has been mostly solved, according to police.
Since last week, police have investigated break-ins at the LFS store and boats at the harbor, Northern Air Cargo, Island Air, and Tucker Aviation, and an expensive generator was stolen from L&M while the store was open.
Two men are in custody, and police say a they are building a case against a third suspect.
Sergeant Rodney Etheridge is acting chief while Dan Pasquariello is away on vacation. Etheridge says the first break-ins were reported last Wednesday at the boat harbor.
"A few vessels were broken into, and we're still working with the owners to find out what if anything was taken from those boats. The following day there was a burglary at the LFS store, and a bunch of fishing supplies, marine equipment, and tobacco was stolen from there," he said.
A white, single-cab Ford pickup truck was also taken from LFS, and has not yet been recovered. (Update Monday 2:00 p.m.: Police say they had located the Ford truck in a parking lot in Aleknagik.)
After investigating, police named Alexie Mccarr, 27, as the suspect, and some of the stolen items were recovered at his home. Others told police they had bought cigarettes off Mccarr after the burglary. Mccarr was booked on felony burglary and misdemeanor theft.
Police then turned their attention to the airport, which reported break-ins Friday.
"It looked like a person gained access to the back of the ramp through Island Air, then went to NAC and Tucker Aviation," said Etheridge. "They took some guns from NAC, which we've recovered, and small amounts of money from the other two airlines."
Etheridge says a suspect has been developed in those break-ins but not yet arrested.
The next reported theft was from the L&M hardware store downtown. Etheridge himself was actually at the store investigating another of the cases when an employee doing inventory noticed that a generator valued at roughly $1500 was missing. By another stroke of luck, a short time later a person walked into the store and mentioned he’d bought a generator the night before at the Sea Inn Bar for the price of two bottles of whiskey, then thought better of it the next day and decided to report it to L&M.
Not long after police had Robert Blair, 32, under arrest, charged with felony theft.
KDLG News asked if police believe the spike in petty crime is drug-related.
"That's not far off the mark," said Etheridge. "The motive in both of these cases appears to be the mainly abused substance in Dillingham, which is alcohol. That was what the generator was sold for."
As were some of the cigarettes. In a strange coincidence, Blair, who allegedly sold the generator for whiskey, admitted to police that he traded Mccarr tequila for some of the stolen cigarettes.
Etheridge said none of the break-ins appear to be related.
Using surveillance cameras to investigate the recent burglaries and break-ins is a not always as helpful as some might assume.
"It's not like Hollywood," said Etheridge. "Sometimes they don't work the way they're supposed to, or sometimes the angle is not correct, as was the case with the gas recently stolen from a car downtown. They don't see everything. We have just a few dozen cameras, and sometimes they help. When they work they're great, and when they don't, we still have other tools to investigate crimes."
Police are also still investigating the court house break-in from a few weeks back, and believe that evidence sent to the state crime lab may produce a suspect.