The search is on for an outlaw hunting guide who cut off his ankle monitor last week in Anchorage, according to Alaska State Troopers.
Wildlife troopers are looking for Michael A. "Tony" Roberts -- out on bail for guiding without a guide's license, flying without a pilot's license and driving without a valid driver's license -- after he allegedly used a grinder to remove the court-ordered tracking device during the early morning hours of Oct. 4. Roberts, 50, disappeared from the home of his third-party custodian, near Arctic Boulevard and Dowling Road, and hasn't been seen since, troopers said.
It's not the fist time Roberts has run from the law.
Undercover officers, posing as hunting clients, had finished an investigation of Roberts for guiding without a license, same day airborne hunting and possession of illegal game when a team of troopers tried to arrest him in 1999. Roberts fled from the troopers and their helicopter near Talkeetna, and it was another six months before the authorities caught him outside of Trapper Creek.
In a 2010 case, Roberts was convicted of illegal possession and transportation of a moose, according to court records. He was sentenced in September 2011 to spend nearly a year behind bars but was released in February 2012, troopers said.
Court records show Roberts was charged in July with three counts of flying an airplane without a pilot's license and two counts of driving an automobile while his license was revoked. As a condition of his bail, Roberts was ordered to remain with his third-party custodian and wear the tracking device around his ankle.
Now, with the ankle monitor cut off and Roberts on the run, the troopers are again looking for him.
Roberts is wanted on a $50,000 warrant for contempt of court. He is described as 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 220 pounds. He has balding gray hair and green eyes, troopers said.
Anyone with information as to Roberts whereabouts is asked to call the Alaska Wildlife Troopers Investigations Unit at 269-5445 or trooper dispatchers at 352-5401.
Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.
By CASEY GROVE