Wasilla man charged with Big Lake burglary

PALMER -- A Wasilla man was arrested and charged Monday in connection with a burglary at the Big Lake Foodmart last month.

Carl E. Gage, 30, was charged with second-degree burglary, third-degree criminal mischief and fourth-degree theft in connection with the May 9 burglary.

Alaska State Troopers were called to the store at 1:53 a.m., May 10, after Guardian Security reported the store had been broken into through a vent in the roof.

Store manager Alan McColler reported that nothing appeared to be missing from the store, but a video camera had been installed by the front door that only McColler and the store owner, Steve Fish, knew about.

The camera recorded the suspect throwing a chair at the door to open it and when that wasn't successful, he threw a chair at a glass window, broke it, and fled the scene.

Troopers were able to reproduce six photos from the videotape and gave them to Fish, who posted them on the store wall by the cash register.

A customer who saw the photos identified the person in the photos as Carl Gage, according to charging documents, and said she had known him all his life. She used to baby-sit him in Seward, she said. A number of other people also identified the man in the photo as Gage, Fish said.

On June 23, Wasilla Police stopped a 1986 Suburban for a broken taillight. Gage was in the vehicle and officers spoke with him and two others in the vehicle. There was also a power saw, a dollie, and a tool chest in the back of the Suburban, according to court documents.

When Trooper Alice Sears, lead investigator in the case, later interviewed Gage at the Palmer trooper post, he allegedly said he took a baseball cap from the Foodmart just before midnight on May 9, and that he had entered the store through an opening on the roof. He reportedly claimed he was told to break into the store to test the building's security system.

Fish said his store was also broken into three days later, on May 12. The alarms went off both times, he said, and the suspect exited both times through the front window.

On one of the break-ins, the suspect left behind a pair of bolt cutters on the floor. The suspects were not successful either time in obtaining any cash from the store, Fish said.

"Since then, I've installed security alarms in triplicate," he said. The cost to repair the store window was almost $500.

Gage is lodged at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in lieu of $10,000 cash bail and a court-approved, third-party custodian.