Crime & Courts

Anchorage police warn of prowler entering residences of East Anchorage women

Anchorage police say an unidentified male has been entering residences in East Anchorage where women were home alone. Three similar incidents occurred in the area of Alaska's largest city.

The incidents all occurred in residential areas, from the neighborhood of Mountain View extending south to Northern Lights, within the last month. The most recent case occurred just after 4 a.m. on Monday; a woman reported an unknown man entered her bedroom. She told police she screamed and the man fled.

The woman had been sleeping, said police spokesperson Jennifer Castro. Castro could not say if the man was standing over the bed, or if he was trying to conceal his presence.

Police describe the suspect as a young male in his early twenties, with a dark complexion, between 5-foot-8-inches and 6 feet tall with a thin build and likely weighing between 130 and 160 pounds. He's been seen wearing a dark hoodie and a dark doo-rag or beanie. Police think that the suspect is fleeing the homes on a bicycle.

All the homes the man entered were ground-level apartments. He entered two of the apartments through glass sliding doors. All three incidents happened between 3:30 and 5 a.m., police said.

Castro said it's unclear if the women in the two other incidents were sleeping when the man entered the apartments. "He made entry to the homes between that timeframe, and once it was known that he was in the residences by the females, then he would flee," Castro said.

None of the women were harmed during the break-ins, and the suspect has not attempted to take anything from the homes, she said.

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The Anchorage Police Department is requesting anyone with information on the potential suspect or other pertinent information to call police at 907-786-8900, or if the caller wants to stay anonymous, to call Crime Stoppers at 907-561-STOP.

The Department also encourages the public to lock all doors and windows in their homes, secure their keys and to not keep a garage door opener in vehicles.

Contact Jerzy Shedlock at jerzy(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter @jerzyms

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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