Armed robbery details emerge

WASILLA — An alleged robber hit two local convenience stores and robbed at least one other business as a cry for help directed at his estranged wife, then spent some of the proceeds on drugs, according to allegations filed in court documents in Palmer.

Authorities arrested Michael Longiny III, 28, Nov. 20 at his residence on Heritage Drive in Wasilla. Longiny allegedly confessed to robbing the two locations of the local Valley Country Store, one at Church and Seldon Sept. 29, and the other near the Bogard Road and Seldon Road intersection Nov. 14. Longiny denied robbing Tan Alaska, a Parks Highway tanning salon, the following day. He also denied any role in a robbery and attempted robberies that took place on Nov. 17, according to an affidavit written by Alaska State Trooper Ronald Hayes.

Longiny allegedly stole about $425 in cash and a pack of Marlboro Reds from the Church Road Valley Country Store location, threatening one of the clerks with a large silver butcher knife. Witnesses said the robber fled the store on foot, and investigators noted his distinctive footwear on the security camera recording of the incident: white shoes with black soles, according to Hayes. The robber also used a bandana to hide his face, Hayes wrote.

On Nov. 14, Longiny allegedly entered the other Valley Country Store and pointed a black semi-automatic pistol at the clerk. The details from this robbery are relatively clearer: the robber stole $304.99 in cash, and wore similar distinctive shoes (with blue shoelaces) and a bandana. He left the store in a white sedan.

Tiffany Caswell, a store manager at the Church Road location, said Longiny’s apprehension was good news.

“I think we’re pretty secure,” she said. “I don’t think anybody ever felt afraid.”

Interviewed in early October, Caswell said she had suspected the robber would eventually turn out to be a local. Heritage Drive is less than five miles from the store.

“It wasn’t someone I knew per se, but they did shop here,” she said.

Authorities have already issued some subpoenas in the case, Caswell said.

Court documents suggest Longiny may have been involved in other robberies.

On Nov. 15, at about 7:30 p.m., a man robbed the tanning salon while pointing a black pistol at the clerk, and left with an undisclosed amount of cash. Police later drove over a Longiny’s cell phone in the same parking lot. Longiny claimed the car, with hi cell phone inside, was in the hands of an unidentified associate during that robbery.

On Nov. 17, a string of robberies and attempted robberies started at 5:53 p.m. at the Parks Highway Famous Footwear, when a man with white-and-black shoes tried to hold up Famous Footwear. He pointed the gun at the clerk and demanded money.

The clerk refused, according to Hayes.

“The clerk feels the gun is fake so he denies the suspect money,” the investigator wrote. “The suspect then leaves.”

The clerk told investigators the robber had a scar over one eye. Longiny has a scar over one of his eyes. Longiny later told troopers the gun he’d used in the second Valley Country Store robbery was an air-soft pellet gun. As of Thursday, Longiny had not been charged in the Famous Footwear case.

Troopers spotted the robber on video camera from the adjacent Target store and noted the make and model of the car: a 2004 white Pontiac Grand Prix.

A then man in a Pontiac Grand Prix then to Rippie World, a pull-tab outlet on the Parks Highway, about 20 minutes later and asked a clerk to come to the counter.

“The clerk did not walk to the counter and said it was relatively busy at that time and obviously the guy looked shady,” Hayes wrote. “The clerk said the suspect then left the store. The clerk sent her son to Arctic Pull Tabs to warn them of the suspect.”

At Arctic Pull Tabs, the owner was on duty and locked the door after she was warned about a robber. When the suspect tried to enter the store, the owner put up a sign on the door that read “You’re on camera,” so the suspect swore and ran off, Hayes said.

About 20 minutes after that, police spotted a Pontiac Grand Prix in the Wasilla Carrs parking lot. When law enforcement officers stopped the vehicle later that night, a woman was driving with an unidentified male passenger. They obtained an address and photographed the vehicle.

Two days later, Wasilla Police spotted the car again and pulled it over, finding the owner of a used car lot inside. The man said he’d traded a 1995 Jeep for the Grand Prix to a man with a missing tooth. The dealer gave investigators the license plate number of the Jeep, and troopers stopped it on the first day of surveillance of Longiny’s residence, according to Hayes. Troopers found Longiny — who has both a scar over one eye and a missing tooth — inside, Hayes wrote.

“Longiny also later affirmed that he traded the Grand Prix because of the information on Facebook about the robberies involving a white sedan and the fact that WPD had stopped the vehicle and photographed it with (his wife) inside,” Hayes wrote.

Police used those photos to match the car’s tire tread to the Grand Prix’s tires, according to Hayes.

Longiny also told investigators the robberies he admitted to were out of character.

“He admitted that it wasn’t like him to do the robberies, but it was cry for help and an attempt to gain the attention of his estranged wife,” Hayes wrote.

Longiny remains in Mat-Su Pretrial Tuesday on $25,000 cash bail with a court-appointed third-party custodian requirement.

His next court appearance is set for Dec. 1 at 1 p.m. in the Palmer Courthouse. Authorities charged Longiny with two counts of armed robbery, two counts of third-degree assault, and two counts of third-degree theft.

Officers expect to file additional robbery charges when new Wasilla Police Department investigator Brandon Gray completes training later this month, said chief Gene Belden. While the gun eventually turned out to be fake, only luck had averted catastrophe, Belden said.

“Any time you go into a store or any kind of business and pull out a plastic gun or pull a knife and demand money, the individual behind the counter has the counter between him and you, and he has time to react,” he said. “Now how is he gonna react? Is he going to pull a gun and shoot you, or is he going to grab something off the counter and crack you in the head with it? There’s real danger for either/or.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.