Burglar caught

PALMER — The rash of burglaries that hit more than a dozen local businesses over the past two weeks is likely at an end, police said.

The burglaries all appeared to be the same — forced entry, valuables passed up in favor of cash. Churches, thrift stores, a home appliance store, a bookstore, and numerous other businesses were hit between Palmer and Wasilla and places in between.

On Tuesday, Palmer Police Detective Sgt. Kelly Turney said Alaska State Troopers arrested Rueben Fielder, 23, of Wasilla. Through the evidence he’d collected and talking to Fielder, Turney said, police were able to link Fielder to two of the break-ins. He expects to see more charges filed soon.

“I feel fairly confident that we’ve caught the individual who is more than likely responsible” for the several burglaries, Turney said.

The two break-ins Fielder is charged with so far, he said, took place at Fireside Books and at Bishop’s Attic, both Palmer businesses. The Wasilla businesses — the Salvation Army, the Mat-Su Regional Outpatient Clinic, Allen and Peterson’s, as well as those in troopers’ jurisdiction, Mat-Su College and a pair of churches — will be evaluated to see which ones police can link to Fielder.

Greg Wood, deputy chief with the Wasilla Police Department, said he’s pretty sure one of the burglaries his department is investigating can be chalked up to Fielder. He strongly suspects a couple more could be.

“We just need to go get him and have a talk with him,” Wood said.

As for the Palmer businesses, Turney said a clerk at Fireside reported seeing someone suspicious at the business the day before it was hit. She later picked Fielder out of a photo lineup. Bishop’s Attic had video cameras running during that burglary.

“With the Bishop’s Attic, his smiling face is on TV. It makes it kind of easy,” Turney said.

Also, Fielder admitted to the break-ins in interviews with police. But, he said, he’d already spent all the money on food, lodging and Oxycontin, a powerful prescription narcotic that is a favorite among drug users.

Cathy Endes, manager at Active Soles Performance Footwear in the Koslosky Center, said she was happy to hear police believe they’d gotten their man. She expressed reservations, though, saying she hopes if Fielder is the right guy that he didn’t have accomplices.

Since the break-in the store has installed extra security measures and the owner of the building is eyeing some changes as well, Endes said.

A break-in, she said, “Just kind of leaves you with an off feeling the rest of the day, wondering what you could have done different and what to do different.”

The store was hit just once, though other businesses in the building were hit twice. She said the thief was just after cash. He smashed their cash register — not a cheap item to replace — and damaged the door breaking in but otherwise left the store untouched.

Turney said Thursday he was going to hold a meeting at the Koslosky Center to help business owners and others be more aware of security measures they can take.

He said that for a lot of business owners, a break-in like this is almost as personal as a break-in at home.

“A lot of these folks, their business is their second home,” he said. “When their business is getting burglarized it’s like their second home is getting violated.”

In the end, Turney said, it was a tip from the outpatient center in Wasilla that led him to Fielder.

Just like at Fireside, an employee there noticed someone suspicious the day before the burglary. The employee followed the man’s pickup and was able to give Wasilla police a license plate number, which turned up in police databases as registered to Fielder.

“I was able to find out where he was and I called Trooper (Tim) Lewis down in Girdwood” Turney said.

Lewis went all-out, driving from the Hope Cutoff to McHugh Creek and all around the area looking for Fielder. He finally caught him at Mile 112 of the Seward Highway.

The whole case went that way, Turney said, with cooperation from all law enforcement agencies involved.

“You talk to other agencies, you stay in touch, something small like that pans out to this,” he said.

Turney said, and court records confirmed, that this isn’t Fielder’s first trip through the legal system on burglary and theft charges. The warrant Fielder was initially arrested on was for a probation violation on a theft case. And he was out on bail on a burglary case. The court calendar Wednesday had him scheduled to start his trial that morning.

As for accomplices, Turney said, he doesn’t have any indication that anyone was helping Fielder. Yet.

“At this point no, but you always stay open-minded because if you close your mind to other avenues then you limit your investigation.”

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