Pair arrested following second ATM heist in two weeks

PALMER — For the second time in two weeks, an automated cash machine was stolen from a local business.

This time, however, the thieves were caught within 24 hours.

According to a sworn statement Alaska State Trooper Timothy Cronin filed in court, the case came to light when a burglar alarm went off at Alaska Fast Cash pawnshop. The shop faces the Palmer-Wasilla Highway next door to the go-kart track at the highway’s intersection with Luke Street.

Soon after the burglar alarm went off, troopers found a white 2000 Ford Expedition that was suspected to have been involved in the burglary. It was stuck in a snow bank on Country Fair Drive. Through its registration they landed on their first suspect, Almando Abarca. .

Troopers tracked Abarca down to his house, Cronin writes, where he quickly agreed to lay the whole story out for them.

“Three or four days prior, he and Luc Mackie had talked about different ways they could get money. Luc indicated there was a way that they could get $10,000 to $15,000 apiece and to get tools ready,” Cronin writes. “Luc told Almando that he would contact him when it was time to get the money.”

On New Years Eve, Mackie put in a call to Abarca. Abarca borrowed gas money from his sister and picked Mackie up in the Expedition.

“Both Almando and Luc were dressed in black clothing and had ski masks covering their face(s). Almando later indicated that he also put tape on the front and rear license plate to conceal the front and back license plates,” Cronin writes.

It wasn’t until they were on the road near the store that Mackie filled Abarca in on the plan to steal the ATM. Abarca drove back and forth in front of the store checking it out, then parked in a lot with vehicles the store was selling.

“At approximately (4:30 a.m.), Almando and Luc agreed that it was getting late and they needed to steal the ATM now,” according to Cronin’s statement.

The two got out, Mackie chucked a broken spark plug through glass at the store, and from here accounts differ slightly. Mackie, who troopers interviewed after Abarca, said that the spark plug took out all of the glass while Abarca says they used a crowbar to smash the glass that remained after the spark plug went through.

They grabbed the machine and loaded it in the truck, pausing briefly when Abaraca had to run back and retrieve the crowbar he’d briefly forgotten.

Immediately after leaving the store, Abaraca got the Expedition stuck.

“Luc told him that they should leave and report his vehicle as stolen. Luc initially started to leave down the road and Almando told him to come back and help him. Almando indicated that they needed to get the ATM out of the back before leaving,” Cronin writes. “Almando buried the ATM in the snow near a large electrical box.”

They also hid their burglary tools — two sledge hammers and the crowbar. The two men then started calling for a ride. One of Mackie’s cousins eventually picked them up.

Back at home, Abarca called his brother, who reported the Expedition stolen.

As for a motive, Abaraca gave about the most simple one you can: he needed money.

“Almando stated that he was currently unemployed and needed money to take care of his family and pay his parents back for rent because he was living at their residence,” Cronin writes.

The account that Mackie gave troopers was substantially similar to Abarca’s. Probably the most notable difference is that Mackie said it was all Abarca’s idea.

“Luc stated that ALmando had come over to his residence in the early morning hours of 01-01-2014 and they discussed needing money and how they could get some. Almando had the idea to steal the ATM from Alaska Fast Cash,” Cronin writes.

On the morning of Dec. 21, troopers were summoned to RW’s Hamburger House on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway where an ATM had been stolen the night before. Troopers gave no indication either in Cronin’s court filing or in an AST press release about Wednesday’s theft if there’s any suspicion Abarca or Mackie had a hand in that theft. A far as public records show, neither the RW machine nor its contents have been located.

“They are only charged with the ATM form Alaska Fast Cash. We don't provide suspect information unless people are charged,” AST spokeswoman Megan Peters writes in an email responding to an inquiry as to whether the two thefts are connected.

Prior to the most recent pair of thefts, the last time someone stole an ATM in the Valley was in 2007 when an empty machine was boosted from the Silver Fox Inn. Prior to that, between 2000 and 2002 a string of attempted and sometimes successful ATM thefts plagued the Valley. Three machines were targeted with five attempts on a single machine in Willow.

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