Suspect identified in area jewelry heists

Soldotna police and Alaska State Troopers have identified a suspect in four recent jewelry store break-ins in Soldotna and Sterling.

Charges are pending, according to Soldotna Police Sgt. Todd McGillivray.

A Kenai male, who was 17 years old when Homestead Jewelers, Thompson's Log Gift and Jewelry Shop and Alaska Horn and Antler were burglarized, has been contacted, and burglary and theft charges are being sent to Juvenile Intake on the suspect.

Alaska Horn and Antler's satellite store in Sterling was hit twice.

Since the break-ins, the male suspect turned 18 and allegedly sold some of the stolen items in Anchorage. Charges by Anchor-age police are pending for those crimes.

Many of the stolen items have been recovered, according to McGillivray.

A burglar entered Thompson's Log Gift and Jewelry on July 15 and took gold jewelry from display cases.

That burglary came two days after Soldotna police responded to an alarm at Homestead Jewelers and found a thief had broken a window and took jewelry from a display case.

Two burglaries were reported by Alaska Horn and Antler at its satellite location in the former Chevron gas station in Sterling.

Shop owner Tom Cooper said a preliminary estimate set the total value of stolen items at more than $20,000.

While waiting for completion of the new Kenai Landing retail space, Cooper and his wife, Linda, opened the second location on Memorial Day weekend and five weeks later, on July 4, a thief broke the window out of a back door and entered the shop.

Ivory and bead bracelets and necklaces, some imitation bear claws and some hematite jewelry were taken, Tom Cooper said.

Three days later, the shop was hit again.

This time, the thief smashed a hole in a side thermal pane window and left with an $1,100 ram horn carving by Cooper, a half dozen caribou carvings, two Don Connors antler carvings and a Lyle Johnson moose antler carving.

Also missing were a dozen scrimshaw engraved knives, a dozen Maynard Linder steel knives with bone and antler handles, a number of ulus and some Dale Duby obsidian knives.

Ivory necklaces, fossil mammoth ivory bracelets and some other carvings also were taken.

McGillivray said the suspect was contacted at his father's residence and was left in the custody of the father.