Police believe they have burglar

PALMER — The rash of burglaries that hit more than a dozen local businesses over the past two weeks is likely at an end, police said today.

The burglaries all appeared to be the same — forced entry, valuables passed up in favor of cash. Churches, thrift stores, a home appliance store, a bookstore, and numerous other businesses were hit between Palmer and Wasilla and places in between.

On Tuesday, Palmer Police Detective Sgt. Kelly Turney said Alaska State Troopers arrested Rueben Fielder, 23, of Wasilla. Through the evidence he’d collected and through talking to Fielder, Turney said, police were able to link Fielder to two of the break-ins. He expects to see more charges filed soon.

“I feel fairly confident that we’ve caught the individual who is more than likely responsible” for the series of break-ins, Turney said.

The two break-ins Fielder is charged with so far, he said, are the break-in at Fireside Books and the break-in at Bishop’s Attic, both Palmer businesses. The Wasilla businesses — the Salvation Army, the Mat-Su Regional Outpatient Clinic, Allen and Peterson’s, as well as those in troopers’ jurisdiction, Mat-Su College and a pair of churches — will be evaluated to see which ones police can link to Fielder.

As for the Palmer businesses, Turney said a clerk at Fireside reported seeing someone suspicious at the business the day before it was hit. She later picked Fielder out of a photo lineup. Bishop’s Attic had video cameras running during its burglary.

“With the Bishop’s Attic, his smiling face is on TV, makes it kind of easy,” Turney said.

Also, Fielder admitted to the break-ins in interviews with police. But, he said, he’d already spent all the money on food, lodging and Oxycontin, a powerful prescription narcotic that is a favorite among drug users.

A tip from the outpatient center led him to Fielder, Turney said. Just like at Fireside, an employee there noticed someone suspicious the day before the burglary. The employee followed the man’s pickup and was able to give Wasilla police a license plate number, which turned up in police databases as registered to Fielder.

“I was able to find out where he was,” Turney said, so he called the troopers in Girdwood.

The trooper who helped, he said, went all-out, driving from the Hope Cutoff to McHugh Creek and all around the area looking for Fielder. He finally caught him at Mile 112 of the Seward Highway.

The whole case went that way, Turney said, with cooperation from all law enforcement agencies involved.

“You talk to other agencies, you stay in touch, something small like that pans out to this,” he said.

For now, Turney said, he doesn’t have any indication that anyone was helping Fielder. Yet.

“At this point no but you always stay open-minded because if you close your mind to other avenues then you limit your investigation.”

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