Burglars claim they were helping someone move

BIG LAKE — Varying explanations for why stolen items turned up in the back of an SUV in the Big Lake Tesoro parking lot earlier this week include:

• four people with guns took them, saying they were there to collect a debt;

• those same four people were unarmed and helping people move;

• and there’s just no good reason.

Alaska State Troopers first received word of the burglary on Saquonee Street at 7:07 p.m., Monday. On the way in, Trooper Ryan Anderson wrote in court filings, they received a “detailed description of the individuals and of the suspect vehicle.”

Adams went to the home and talked to that witness.

“(The witness) stated he was at the residence babysitting and playing with two children in the front yard,” he wrote. “(He) stated he observed a dark green SUV pull into the driveway. (He) observed three males and one female exit the vehicle. (He) stated the driver had a handgun in his hand and the two male passengers in the rear had shotguns. The driver stated to (him) that he was there to collect a debt from someone at the property.”

Those same people went into the house and came back out with “a large amount of property” they loaded into the SUV.

The witness gave them a license plate number — SPUD1 — and troopers found it at the Tesoro station on Big Lake Road. Inside were Devon Tucker, 24; Cassie Fowner, 21; Justin Simas, 21; and Blade Aycock, 20.

All said that they’d been to the house, but gave varying accounts of how they wound up taking things.

Aycock apparently said he’d been told they were there to “take property back.” Tucker said he was there to help someone named Ben move.

“Troopers did not locate anyone named Ben,” Anderson writes.

Fowner corroborated the moving story. Simas said he was just picked up on Hollywood Road.

“Simas went to the residence and assisted by taking the property out of the residence using laundry baskets found in the residence,” Anderson writes.

Eventually, the woman who owned the home arrived at the Tesoro. She identified the items in the back of the SUV as hers. Troopers estimate the value of things taken to be between $500 and $25,000, Anderson writes. His affidavit was prepared before troopers could get a search warrant to get inside the SUV and look at all of it.

“There was no reason for the property to be taken from her residence,” she told troopers, before adding that “she does not know any of the individuals in the SUV.”

Anderson writes that there were also three shotguns in the back of the SUV.

Tucker, Fowner, Simas and Aycock were arrested for burglary and theft and jailed at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility. Tucker and Aycock had bail set at $10,000. Bail for Fowner and Simas was set at $20,000. All four were still incarcerated as of Thursday afternoon.

As criminal records go, Fowner had two open cases — one for criminal mischief the other for assault — when she was arrested. Tucker had nothing more serious than a traffic ticket. Simas has three open cases in addition to Monday’s burglary. Charges include criminal mischief, driving in violation of an instructional permit and theft. Aycock pleaded guilty to underage drinking in Palmer in 2011 and in Juneau in 2006.

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