New Theft Suppression Unit nets 15 indictments in 1 week

PALMER — How much success can you expect when you take four Alaska State Troopers put them to work catching Valley thieves?

Apparently, quite a bit.

“We just got indictments on 15 felonies from last week and we’re working on some more for this week,” Sgt. Tony Wegrzyn, who was tapped to head up the four-man theft suppression unit for AST’s Palmer detachment, said Wednesday, fresh from testifying in front of the grand jury that leveled those charges.

The unit went live Jan. 1. Wegrzyn said the busts include everything from stolen plow trucks to a pair of stolen cash machines and basic burglaries.

“Every single one of them is a property crime,” he said.

Wegrzyn’s supervisor, Capt. Hans Brinke, said the idea for the unit came from Wegrzyn, who sent him a memo a year ago outlining his plan for such a unit. The post got five new troopers in this year’s state budget, so Brinke said he decided now was the time to put the plan into effect. He took two of those new positions, paired them with two positions that had been stationed with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation and created the unit.

The other three troopers in the theft suppression working under Wegrzyn’s supervision are Tim Cronin, Andrew Ballesteros and Eric Taylor. Brinke said each applied to be in the unit and he let Wegrzyn pick from the applicant pool.

Brinke said he’s been pleased with the results.

“They get very good leads that are hot and ready to be picked and they’ve been doing a phenomenal job,” he said.

Cronin said that he enjoys the switch.

“When we’re on patrol it’s hard to always see a case through from beginning to end,” he said.

A trooper working a standard patrol shift moves from call to call without much time to investigate each new case. But the way the theft suppression unit is structured, the troopers don’t have to respond to things like minor traffic accidents, burglar alarms or people who call 911 and hang up. Which enables them to follow all the leads they receive in each case.

“You’re getting to put someone in jail for doing something bad,” Cronin said. “It’s kind of a satisfying feeling to get to follow a case through like that.”

Brinke stressed that the troopers in the unit aren’t ignoring emergency calls. They’ll still roll out to a domestic violence call if it comes over the radio. Those kinds of person-on-person, potentially life-threatening emergencies will always take precedence.

“They’re uniformed troopers, they’re in marked patrol cars. They’re out there. Their primary focus is property crimes, but they’re still Alaska State Troopers,” Brinke said.

The goal is to not just to get more thieves off the streets and behind bars, but also to reduce some of the frustration, open cases and workload of regular patrol units, he said.

“They’re taking a larger amount of these property crimes, (and) it gives the rest of the guys in patrol more time to focus on the other things that are going on out here,” Brinke said. “If these guys are successful, they’re making everyone else in patrol just as successful.”

If a call is about a property crime that seems serious, dispatchers can send troopers from the unit out just like they would a regular patrol officer. Or, if one of those patrol guys gets a property crime case that looks like it’s going to be complicated, he can ask the unit to take it over.

When these cases were left with patrol troopers, those troopers would try to work those leads between other calls. But the volume of calls often overwhelms that effort. Cases can languish, waiting for a break.

Wegrzyn said waiting for breaks is not the way to work property crimes cases.

“These cases just don’t break, you have to make stuff happen with them,” he said.

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

The Alaska State Troopers’ four-man theft suppression unit went live Jan. 1. Already, the unit has managed to get 15 felony cases to the indictment phase. Here’s the unit’s greatest hits after less than two weeks in operation:

Stolen ATM

On Jan. 1, the unit was sent to investigate an ATM stolen out of the Alaska Fast Cash pawnshop off of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

Troopers arrested Luc Mackie, 21, and Almando Abarca, 22, in that case after finding a pickup stuck in a nearby snowbank that matched the description of the one seen leaving the scene.

Abarca told authorities the ATM had been stashed in the snow nearby and troopers recovered it and all the cash inside.

Stolen pickup

On Jan. 2, the unit was called in to follow up on a report that a 2008 Ford F-250 pickup stolen from a Wasilla home in October was at a house on Limberlost Avenue in the Vine Road area.

There, according to documents Trooper Andrew Ballesteros filed in court, they talked to Wyatt Metro, 26, who said he got cold walking home from Carrs and saw the pickup running in a driveway, so he took it.

Later, Metro said he removed the plow and the bed of the pickup.

He also ditched the license plates and scratched off all but one of its vehicle identification numbers.

Metro was charged with vehicle theft, criminal mischief and evidence tampering and jailed at the Mat-Su Pre Trial Facility. He’s since made bail and been released.

Stolen ATV

On Jan. 7, the unit was in Big Lake where a $14,799 four-wheeler had been stolen from Big Lake Arctic Cat.

According to an AST press statement, the 2014 Arctic Cat 1000 Mud Pro was recovered and returned to the dealership. They’re still looking for the person who stole it. Anyone with information can call troopers at 745-2131 or Mat-Su Crime Stoppers at 745-3333

Mackie again

On Jan. 9, the unit worked with Wasilla police to investigate a case of theft and fraud. They ended up arresting Luc Mackie, one of the ATM burglars, a second time.

According to an AST press release, Mackie and Nycole Sorrow, 21, of Palmer, had been making purchases at a local business with a stolen credit card.

Both were charged with theft and fraudulent use of an access device. Sorrow was also charged with forgery. They were jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility. As of Friday evening, Mackie was still locked up, but Sorrow had made bail.

—Andrew Wellner