Thieves hit Forestry again

PALMER — Division of Forestry can’t seem to catch a break this year.

Not in firefighting or forestry management — the division is doing just fine there. Where it can’t catch a break is in the area of equipment retention. Twice in four months the division has had very expensive things stolen from it.

The latest theft happened sometime after Nov. 11, likely during a recent snowfall. Someone made off with three 4-wheelers that were parked behind the division’s main Valley facility at the Palmer airport. The theft was reported to police Nov. 20, soon after employees noticed the 4-wheelers were missing.

“We have a trailer, the trailer is locked up, the 4-wheelers were strapped to the top of it,” said Forestry’s Norm McDonald.

The keys weren’t kept with the 4-wheelers — they were kept secure inside Forestry’s facilities. And the trailer’s hitch was locked so a passerby couldn’t attach it to his pickup. But that didn’t stop the thieves.

“Somehow they muscled the four-wheelers off of (the trailer) and into the back of a trailer or into a truck,” McDonald said.

He said the machines were ones the division was using recently in a project clearing brush and otherwise reducing the amount of fire fuel in the state park at Nancy Lake.

McDonald seemed a bit discouraged by the theft, especially in light of what happened this summer.

In August, while a couple of Forestry’s Valley-based hot-shot firefighting crews were out battling summertime blazes in Fairbanks, their base of operations in a different division facility on Trunk Road close to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center was burglarized. Computers, chainsaws, car stereos, water pumps, a bicycle, four pickups and a Subaru were stolen. The vehicles all belonged to firefighters, not to Forestry.

A month later, Alaska State Troopers arrested Stephen E. Foster, 27, and charged him with 17 felonies for that break-in. He has a trial date scheduled for the end of the month. The affidavit filed in the case doesn’t state explicitly that Foster acted alone but seems to suggest that he could have, making multiple trips to accomplish the feat.

McDonald said whoever took the 4-wheelers might have also made multiple trips, at least judging by the tire tracks, some of which were covered in snow and some of which were not.

The 4-wheelers, McDonald said, aside from helping forestry employees get to brush that needs to be cleared, are also used in firefighting. He said there were two more 4-wheelers in the yard where the three went missing. He has no idea why the thieves chose the 4-wheelers they did.

Things are slow around Forestry headquarters these days — wildfires aren’t burning and most of the hazard-mitigation work is on hold for the winter. The division has packed away the bulk of its equipment. Indeed, had the thieves waited a few more days, they likely wouldn’t have gotten the chance to steal the 4-wheelers.

“We were just getting ready to put them away for the winter,” McDonald said.

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