Anchorage police are asking for the public’s help identifying a man who smashed into a Midtown tobacco shop early Wednesday morning with a stolen Jeep, taking cigarettes and leading police on a chase before fleeing from the vehicle.
APD spokesperson Lt. Dave Parker says the 2008 Jeep, whose owner said he kept a spare key inside, was stolen from an apartment complex on the 1100 block of West 6th Avenue. It was then used to rob the Smokers Choice shop on the 3600 block of Minnesota Drive.
An APD patrol sergeant saw the Jeep at about 2:20 a.m. Wednesday and followed it to the 2400 block of West 35th Avenue, where the driver abandoned the vehicle.
“Officers investigating the scene found that the vehicle was used as a ram to break into the tobacco shop and cartons of cigarettes were loaded into the Jeep prior to the suspect leaving the scene,” Parker wrote in a Wednesday statement on the case. “The cigarettes and the stolen vehicle were recovered but the suspect is still (on the loose).”
Numerous APD officers, including a K-9 unit, converged on the scene but were unable to locate the suspect.
Parker says no suspects have been arrested in another recent tobacco-shop robbery, in which a woman held up a cashier Oct. 30 at the Alaska Tobacco store at 751 E 36th Ave.
Anyone with information on either crime or the suspects involved is asked to call APD at 786-8900.
Contact Chris Klint
