Troopers make arrest in Forestry burglary

PALMER — A Wasilla man was arrested Saturday on multiple criminal counts relating to a July break-in and burglary at a Division of Forestry building.

According to an Alaska State Troopers report, James Lee III, 36, was arrested at his Wasilla home on a long list of charges, many related to the break-in at the Forestry building on Woodrow Loop near Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

Two Forestry hotshot crews are headquartered there. The Gannet Glacier crew was heading to Utah at the time and the Pioneer Peak crew was already there fighting wildfires.

“The burglary would cause the Gannet Glacier crew to be pulled from the national ready list and would not be able to responded to wildland fires,” AST investigator Brian Hibbs wrote in Lee’s court file.

Items stolen included chainsaws, computers “personal items” belonging to firefighters and two pickups belonging to firefighters — a 2002 Toyota Tundra and a 1998 Toyota Tacoma.

Hibbs writes that the burglary was actually captured on video through a camera at the hospital.

“The video showed the Toyota Tundra pull around to the back door of the DOF building and also showed a large U-Haul truck at the DOF building at the same time,” Hibbs wrote.

Troopers started following a trail of the stolen items.

The day after the burglary, one of the firefighters reported his debit card had been used at two ATMs in Anchorage to make five withdrawals. There were four other failed attempts to use the card.

On July 25, troopers found the two stolen pickups in the woods north of the intersection of Bogard Road and Seward Meridian Parkway. A pistol that had been inside one of the pickups was missing.

That same day, Wasilla Police Department recovered a GPS unit stolen from the building. The man who had it said he’d gotten it from a guy named James. Hibbs said that data on the unit showed it had been at an Anchorage storage unit and at a home on Helen Lane, both of which were used by Lee.

On Aug. 1, Anchorage police seized a bicycle that went missing in the break-in. The man who had it told them he’d gotten it from Christopher Barton.

On Aug. 2, troopers served a warrant to search the phone records of an iPhone that was among the things stolen. Hibbs writes that a SIM card belonging to Lee was put in the phone and that the phone had been nearby to all nine of those ATM transactions.

On Aug. 24, troopers searched the Helen Lane home turning up numerous items from the break-in as well as a stolen four-wheeler from a different case, a gun stolen in Anchorage, a vial of cocaine and brass knuckles.

Lee was interviewed there. He blamed the whole thing on Barton. His girlfriend told troopers that Lee and Barton both participated in the burglary, but she didn’t tell anyone for fear her kids would get taken away from her.

On Aug. 30, troopers found several Forestry items in a home on Little Tree Street in Anchorage. That same day troopers secured rental records showing Lee had rented the U-Haul used in the burglary.

Also that day, troopers “contacted Barton via telephone. Barton quickly ended the conversation after the investigator identified himself,” Hibbs says in his report.

Troopers arrested Lee on Saturday. Interviewed at the AST post in Palmer, Lee admitted he was involved in the burglary with Barton.

Lee was charged with burglary, theft, vehicle theft, fraudulent use of an access device, attempted fraud, drug misconduct, weapons misconduct and possession of burglary tools. He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $25,000 bail and will need to find a third party to watch him before he can be released.

He faces additional felony theft charges in an Anchorage case.

Barton is listed as a defendant in a theft case from May in Anchorage, but is not currently a defendant in any cases related to the Forestry break-in. He’s also not listed as an inmate in any Alaska jails, meaning he may still be at large. As of Monday afternoon, Lee was still in custody at Mat-Su Pre-Trial.

The break-in was very similar to one that happened in the summer of 2010. In that case, tools, computers, electronics and multiple vehicles were also stolen. Stephen E. Foster was convicted of that break-in and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

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