Alaska News

Teen charged in break-ins that damaged Mat-Su church

A 15-year-old boy has been charged in three break-ins that caused $40,000 in damage to a Mat-Su church building, Alaska State Troopers said Monday.

The trouble began Nov. 2 with a report of a fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building at 10865 Horizon Drive, south of Wasilla, according to a trooper dispatch posted online. Troopers and firefighters arrived to found no sign of a fire. They instead discovered someone had caused thousands of dollars in vandalism damage, troopers said.

The church was reported burglarized and vandalized again on Nov. 5. On Sunday morning, after investigating a third reported burglary, troopers arrested a 15-year-old boy at Knik-Goose Bay Road home, charging him with the break-ins.

Troopers did not name the boy. He is being charged with three counts each of second-degree burglary and criminal mischief.

The teen was taken to Mat-Su Youth Facility and held without bail, troopers said.

It wasn't immediately clear on Monday what items were reported stolen from the church building or if troopers suspect others were involved in the break-ins.

Twitter updates: twitter.com/adn_kylehopkins. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or email him at khopkins@adn.com.

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By KYLE HOPKINS

khopkins@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins is special projects editor of the Anchorage Daily News. He was the lead reporter on the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lawless" project and is part of an ongoing collaboration between the ADN and ProPublica's Local Reporting Network. He joined the ADN in 2004 and was also an editor and investigative reporter at KTUU-TV. Email khopkins@adn.com

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