PALMER — A 27-year-old man was formally charged Friday with a slew of crimes relating to a break-in last month at a state Division of Forestry building near Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

Stephen E. Foster, 27, is charged with 17 felonies including multiple theft, vehicle theft and criminal mischief charges as well as one burglary charge.

A number of Forestry firefighters headquartered at the building on Woodworth Loop were busy battling blazes in the Interior when the building was found broken into on Aug. 17. Many of them had left their personal cars and pickups at the Forestry building. Five of those vehicles were stolen during the break-in, as were computers, chainsaws, car stereos, water pumps and at least one bicycle. Troopers estimate the value of the property, minus the vehicles at more than $25,000. An affidavit trooper Duane Leventry filed with the case makes no mention of any accomplices who accompanied Foster to the building that night. But Leventry does describe in detail the scene troopers discovered when they arrived to investigate.

“I observed the inside of the building to be destroyed. It appeared that every inch of the building was gone through. Every desk drawer was pulled out, the personal cubbies of the Fire Fighters had been gone through,” Leventry wrote. “In the rear of the building there are large bay doors to drive vehicles into the facility. I observed a boat trailer that was pulled inside of the building. The trailer was broken in half and the boat that was on the trailer was on the floor of the facility resting on its side.”

The missing vehicles were a green 1997 Subaru, a white 1992 Dodge Ram, a gold 2002 Toyota Tundra, a white 2002 Ford F-150, and a blue 2005 Ford F-250.

Over the course of the affidavit, Leventry recounts how four of the five vehicles eventually turned up.

The white F-150 was found the same day troopers investigated the break-in when a Kenai police officer pulled the driver over. The driver and a passenger, David Fetters and William Gregory, were eventually charged with theft by receiving. Leventry writes that Fetters told a Soldotna trooper sergeant he bought the vehicle and knew it had been stolen from a firefighter. He told the sergeant he’d gotten it from a guy named “Sonny.”

The next vehicle to turn up was the Dodge Ram, which didn’t go far; it was found parked in the Mat-Su Regional lot.

Inside the Dodge Ram troopers found shoe prints, fingerprints, DNA and a number of sunflower seed shells. A Ford van that had been driven into the ditch near the Forestry building in an apparent attempt to steal it also contained “an unusual amount of used sunflower seeds,” Leventry wrote.

The third vehicle to turn up was the green Subaru. Anchorage police stopped it on Aug. 24 and arrested the driver, Aaron Peterson, on charges of drunk driving and driving while license revoked.

“Peterson stated to me that he did not know the vehicle . . . was stolen. Peterson stated that a man that he called ‘Sonny’ gave him the vehicle to borrow,” Leventry wrote.

The fourth vehicle to turn up was the gold Tundra. Leventry wrote that Anchorage police found the pickup on a powerline trail on Eklutna Lake Road.

“It appeared that the vehicle was attempted to have been ran off of a cliff but became stuck on a tree,” Leventry wrote.

At some point Leventry got hold of an ID card one of the witnesses had stolen from “Sonny.” The name on the card was that of Foster. Another witness led Leventry to an Anchorage storage unit that contained numerous items listed as stolen in the Forestry break-in, including the bicycle, which was strapped to a car registered to Foster. Foster’s name was on the storage unit’s paperwork.

It was Anchorage police that finally laid hands on Foster at a traffic stop on Aug. 30.

“Foster was found to be in possession of heroin and hypodermic needles. Foster also had in his possession several identification cards that he tried to pass off as being his,” Leventry wrote.

That afternoon Leventry had an interview with Foster. Troopers still hadn’t tracked down the last vehicle.

“I asked Foster about the stolen blue Ford F-250 and he would not make any verbal admissions but took a piece of paper and attempted to draw a map. Foster then showed (another trooper investigator) and myself the map. It appeared that he drew an intersection of Spenard and Minnesota in Anchorage. When I reached for the map Foster tore it up and stated that I might find what I was looking for around there,” Leventry wrote.

He said that over the course of the investigation a lot of stolen stuff turned up that had gone missing from crime scenes other than the Forestry building.

“Property was linked to at least six other victims,” Leventry wrote.

   

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.