Loot at Houston couple's home linked with a year's worth of burglaries

March 20, 2005

KATE GOLDEN/Frontiersman reporter

HOUSTON - Law-enforcement officers hit the jackpot when they entered a Houston couple's house with a search warrant stemming from a December burglary of the Upper Susitna Gun Club - and found loot from 11 Valley burglaries and belonging to 12 victims.

Nathaniel Day, 25, and Lua Smith, 25, both of Houston, have each been charged with 12 counts of second-degree theft and possession of burglary tools.

The investigative team, the Mat-Su Property Crimes Unit of the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, includes police from Talkeetna, Big Lake, the Alaska Bureau of Investigation and officers from the Alaska Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Enforcement. The team was acting on a tip given to Alaska State Trooper Andrew Adams regarding items stolen from the Upper Susitna Gun Club that appeared at a pawn shop.

After discovering that Nathaniel Day had sold the items, troopers headed to his Houston home Feb. 25.

They were in for a shock.

The loot at the house accounted for "most of the burglaries that have occurred between Big Lake and Talkeetna in the last year," according to investigator Curtis Vik.

When asked if anything was surprising, Vik said, "Everything."

The stolen items ranged in value from very little to thousands of dollars. The list includes: hand tools, electric tools, construction tools, model railroad equipment, radio-controlled-aircraft equipment, water skis, electronics, canoes, kayaks, all-terrain vehicle equipment, generators, two stoves, a Lexmark printer and several air rifles.

"Anything that wasn't bolted down," Vik said.

Vik said investigators have identified "tens of thousands of dollars' worth" of stolen items they found inside the house.

The stoves, printer and air rifles had been taken from the Upper Susitna Gun Club on Dec. 26. The club received more than $12,000 in damage from the frozen pipes and subsequent flooding from its subsequent lack of heat.

The gun-club theft was listed as a Mat-Su Crime Stoppers' Crime of the Week. The tip didn't come through Crime Stoppers, however, according to program coordinator and Wasilla Police Officer Angella Long.

In addition to the booty at the house, Vik said he has pulled "multiple, multiple items" both Day and Smith allegedly sold to pawn shops from Houston to Anchorage.

At the scene, officers arrested Day and charged him with three counts of second-degree theft. Once they identified more items, however, they added the nine other theft charges.

Second-degree theft is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Neither Smith nor Day has been charged with burglary, which would require a confession or other evidence that they entered a building intending to commit a crime. The theft charges refer only to possession of stolen goods.

Investigators also discovered a marijuana-grow operation with 38 plants and grow-related equipment.

Drug charges against Day and Smith, handled by the Mat-Su Narcotics Unit, were forwarded to the district attorney's office. The DA has not filed any of these charges with the Palmer court.

Troopers arrested Smith at a traffic stop on an afternoon two weeks later, on March 9.

Smith was also charged with misconduct involving a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence and three counts of endangering a child.

The first two of these charges stem from her alleged attempt to hide marijuana from investigators.

Day has three prior misdemeanor theft convictions and no felony convictions.

Smith has no prior felony convictions.

Smith was remanded to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in lieu of $2,500 cash or corporate bond. Day, whose probation for an earlier crime has been revoked because of this incident, is being held in Anchorage.

Contact Kate Golden at 352-2284 or kate.golden@frontiersman.com.