Man who wanted to go to jail gets his wish

WASILLA — When police came to ask a man why he trashed part of the Carrs grocery store, he had a simple answer.

“Harmon stated he broke some stuff at Carrs because he wanted to go to jail,” Wasilla Police Department Officer Brandon Gray writes in court papers.

Harmon is 28-year-old Mark P. Harmon. He’d first been reported to officers at 7:07 p.m., Dec. 8. When the investigation was through, officers granted his wish and transported him to jail.

According to Carrs employees, Harmon trashed the lounge/sitting area next to the counters that serve hot food and deli items. After his arrest, they showed Gray video of what Harmon had done.

“I observed video footage of Harmon hitting the glass cover over the fireplace below the television with a wooden high chair. The high chair broke in half and Harmon threw the remaining pieces in his hand at the television,” Gray writes.

Employees also reported seeing him dump coffee on the floor.

Gray writes that when he looked at the television, he saw a hole in it about the size of a baseball in the lower portion.

“The glass cover of the fireplace was not broken,” Gray writes.

While Gray was en route to the store, he writes, employees called to say that Harmon had left wearing tan Carhartt pants and a black jacket. Four minutes after that first call, Gray spotted “a male matching the description provided by dispatch at the intersection of Herning Avenue and Boundary Street.”

Harmon was arrested for criminal mischief — a charge used for people accused of maliciously damaging or destroying property. Employees estimated the value of the television and chair at $500.

Harmon was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility. As of Monday afternoon he was still listed as an inmate there.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270

or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.