A 36-year-old Homer man was arrested Tuesday after police say he stole a car from the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center and led officers in a high speed pursuit that ended when he collided with a tree in front of Wells Fargo Bank.

Michael Hernandez was charged with vehicle theft, violating conditions of release, driving under the influence, reckless driving and failure to stop at the direction of a police officer for taking the car and fleeing police, Kenai Police Chief Dave Ross said in an email Tuesday. He also faces a charge of theft from other vehicles in Old Town Kenai on Tuesday, Ross said.

Ross wrote that the vehicle headed east from the Chamber of Commerce toward Soldotna on the Kenai Spur Highway. According to police, Hernandez turned around in the Safeway parking lot and headed west on the highway before losing control of the vehicle and crashing in front of the bank.

“The driver fled from the vehicle on foot and was apprehended by multiple officers,” Ross wrote.

Natalie Garrett is the finance and operations coordinator for the chamber. She said Tuesday that she was unloading cases of water from her car, the 2015 Ford Explorer that was stolen from the parking lot, around 3:30 p.m. She’d left her jacket, and keys in the vehicle.

“I go out there to make sure I get all the rest of my stuff and there’s somebody in my car,” she said. “This is a stranger. I realized what’s going on, my car’s being stolen.”

Quickly, Garrett said, she called 911, and followed her car around the building. Police were there in minutes, she said, and chased the car as it went over the curb and over the lawn in front of the chamber.

Garrett said she suspected that the man had only intended to steal from her car, not take the whole vehicle, because one of her coworkers noticed her vehicle had been rifled through.

“It could have been that he was going through it and got spooked by me coming out there,” she said. “He probably didn’t want to get out and be confronted, the better option was just to go.”

An affidavit by Kenai Police published with court documents on Wednesday says that when Hernandez was apprehended he had a coat and other items with him that were “stolen from several different vehicles that were parked in the Old Town area around that time.” He also was found to be under the influence of alcohol.

Hernandez was previously arrested on Jan. 28 and charged with three counts of theft, two counts of criminal trespass and a count of violating conditions of release after Soldotna Police responded to a report of theft from a vehicle at the SpitwSpots location in Soldotna.

An affidavit by Soldotna Police from that arrest says Hernandez was seen “digging” inside the vehicle of a housekeeper at the business, and security camera footage found that he had previously entered another car at the same property.

Jackets with the SpitwSpots logo on them were found in a bedroom used by Hernandez, the affidavit says, though credit and debit cards reported stolen in January were not recovered.

At the time of the January arrest, Hernandez was said to be wearing an ankle monitor, which the affidavit said indicated he was at SpitwSpots at the time of the theft. He was out on conditions of release for a September 2020 robbery in Anchorage, for which charging documents were not available Tuesday. That case was yet to go to trial and has not been updated since Jan. 9.

Hernandez pleaded guilty last week, on Feb. 12, to all six charges stemming from the SpitwSpots theft. The sentence rendered by Judge Kimberly Sweet describes, per log notes from a change of plea hearing, a 205-day prison sentence alongside various fines and forfeiture of stolen items. Hernandez was said to be in custody at the time of the sentencing, but the affidavit says that Hernandez was again out on conditions of release and wearing an ankle monitor on Tuesday.

Hernandez is charged with first-degree vehicle theft, second degree theft, two counts of second-degree criminal trespassing, two counts of failure to stop at direction of a police officer, third-degree assault, driving under the influence, reckless driving and violating conditions of release. At an arraignment on Wednesday, Judge Sweet imposed bail of $50,000 cash performance bond, $50,000 cash appearance bond and required a court-approved third-party custodian.

Hernandez is not yet scheduled for another court appearance as of Wednesday evening.

This story was updated Wednesday afternoon with additional information.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

A 2015 Ford Explorer that police say was stolen from the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center before crashing into a tree near Wells Fargo Bank is loaded onto a tow truck in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)