Vandal fires shots at local auto repair shop

WASILLA -- Some customers' vehicles parked outside Wasilla Auto were hit with bullets Wednesday night and two shots struck the front of the building.

Store owner Bill Moll estimated damage at more than $10,000. Ten .40-caliber shell casings were found near the shop at 188 W. Swanson Ave., he said.

Wasilla police reported that a window was shot out at Master Auto, 211 E. Parks Highway, the same night. However, the incidents apparently are unrelated because a BB gun was used to break the window at Master Value, police said. It was valued at $300.

Moll said the vehicles hit in his parking lot sustained significant damage. A Thunderbird had a tire shot out as well as holes in a side door and the hood. A pickup truck's back canopy window was shattered, and another pickup truck took a bullet in the tailgate.

"I have never ever had any vandalism in the 10 years we've been here," said Moll, who previously owned Lube Express next door.

He has a hunch who might be responsible for the shooting. Earlier Wednesday, Moll said, he told a customer that a brake on his vehicle was so badly damaged it needed to be repaired immediately. But the customer didn't want to pay, so Moll would not release the vehicle out of concern that the defect would cause an accident.

That may have angered the man enough to provoke retaliation, Moll believes. Someone tried to break into the front door about 90 minutes before the shooting, activating an alarm, he added.

"They decided that wasn't worthwhile so they came back later," he said.

Moll has insurance, but said it's unknown what kind of liability he's under for the damage. At the least, he said, it will probably boost his premiums or prompt the insurer to drop him.

He considers the incident just one more example of a decline in citizenship.

"I think part of what it is, maybe, is Anchorage's stuff coming our way. It seems to me even the kids today have no respect for anything."