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Oh, there are little rural communities scattered along the highway, including Willow, Trapper Creek, and the touristy town of Healy, which is at the entrance of Denali National Park. One of these communities, just north of Broad Pass, gives us our first Alaska Man story of the day.
Alaska State Troopers act fast, four bad guys busted near Cantwell.
Alaska State Troopers (AST) received a call from the Cantwell gas station on April 7, saying the keys to the laundromat had been stolen and the suspects had driven off down the Parks Highway. Locals in the area were able to provide troopers with a vehicle description as they quickly located the vehicle near the McKinley Village Community Center. They also kept AST updated with information until the troopers arrived to the Community Center.
An investigation by the troopers indicated the driver, 34-year-old Richard Simms of North Pole, had stolen the keys to the laundromat. Simms also had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear at jail to serve out a sentence and he was allegedly driving with his license revoked.
47-year-old Preston Husted of Anchorage, who was one of the passengers in the vehicle and a convicted felon, was allegedly found to be in possession of a loaded handgun. He was also allegedly carrying quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl that were packaged for distribution. According to AST, Husted had prior convictions on similar charges of drug possession with intent to distribute. He was arrested and charged with multiple counts of misconduct involving controlled substances and weapons misconduct.
Once again the quick-acting Alaska State Troopers were on the spot; these guys cover huge areas with fewer people than any law-enforcement organization in the lower 48 could imagine and still managed to bring these malefactors to heel in short order. The thieves, on the other hand, set some new boundaries for stupid crooks, as they didn’t take into account the sharp-eyed locals and how folks in rural Alaska communities look out for one another.
Alaska Man Score: 1.5 of 5 moose nuggets. Demerits for the crooks being idiots, but I’ll give them some points back for giving us a chuckle.
Now, onto an Alaskan figure who was awarded a Senate seat like a feudal title:
Murkowski Strikes Again.
Princess Lisa Murkowski is treading dangerous ground here; Alaskans love their guns and tend to be staunchly pro-Second Amendment; here in the Valley, as I’m fond of pointing out, even the hippies have guns and know how to use them. Lisa Murkowski seems to keep her Republican registration mostly because Democrats don’t hold much sway here outside of Anchorage and Juneau, which is why seeing the legacy media talk about Joe Biden’s projected win in a Democrat primary here is amusing, despite his hostility towards one of Alaska’s key job sources – energy.
