“How would you like to try out that new camera and cover some breaking news?”
That’s the question my news director asked as he walked over to my desk.
I had taken to rewriting local police department news releases, and was slowly feeling my way around being an occasional general assignment reporter.
My Canon 5d had come in the mail a couple of days prior, and I itching to give it a good test run.
Juneau Police Department was in the process of a bust in the area of Indian Village, a depressed area located in downtown Juneau.
And we’d gotten the tip.
Historically Indian Village was a traditional summer village for Auk (Awk) Tlingit (Kling-it) Natives now located in an area bounded by Indian Street and West Willoughby, Distin, Indian Street and Capital avenues.
I grabbed the camera and my backpack and hustled up Whittier Street.
Juneau police officers search Wednesday afternoon a property in the 300 block of Village Street in downtown Juneau after serving a search warrant on the property. Items from recent burglaries were recovered, including stolen property from The Observatory bookstore, Lt. David Campbell said. (Photo by Tripp J Crouse/KTOO)
The scene
At first I wasn’t sure how I’d find it, but I crossed West Willoughby Avenue, I started to see police officers and JPD vehicles parked askew in the street.
The focus was around a small, one-story brown house and the area out lots that bookended the building in the 300-block of Village Street, just behind the Andrew Hope building.
Two uniformed men were standing on the corner of Village and Whittier Way, a small street that borders the west side of the Andrew Hope building.
I asked what was going on.
“Not much” was their reply, and I asked what the police were doing. “They’re just doing their thing.”
No one was saying much.
Maybe it’s because Juneau is a relatively small community.
But mostly I’m learning you have to ask the right questions.
Cops aren’t about to volunteer information.
A chain-link fence separates the house lot from a western lot in which dirty white Ford pickup is parked.
A man who later identifies himself as Sgt. Dominic Branson and another uniformed officer with a tactical vest are standing in front of the house.
Car 404 is parked at an angle, partially out of the way, but the rear driver side corner hangs out onto the street. There’s a sign that says “No parking Any Time” on a telephone pole. The irony isn’t lost on me.
The house is built with a sort of attic room, the windows and slight eave jutting from the sheet metal roof.
There’s a small American flag sticking out of a post that supports the roof, but also serves as a framing for a tiny front porch.
The house number 324 is visible.
Rumors circulated on a local community group on Facebook that it was a drug bust.
Certainly the tactical vests that many officers wore lent to that hearsay.
Police were serving a search warrant it turned out.
I continued walking around the scene, snapping photos as I went.
Police searched inside a house and several vehicles.
Following up on a lead
Juneau police Lt. David Campbell said Thursday that they were investigating further to determine the rightful owners of stolen property recovered in the search.
“Apparently they did recover some items that had been listed in previous burglaries," Campbell said. "They listed off several different possibilities. They're currently doing follow up, trying to establish whose property is what and I know they're still interviewing people and doing investigative work today and probably tomorrow."
No one stopped me from getting too close, though I didn’t feel like testing my limits either.
The only person that really objected was one man, who was clearly cuffed and being led to the back of another police vehicle.
He had a shirt that was pulled over his arms, just obscuring his hands, but it was pretty clear that something limited dynamic wrist movement.
When he realized I was taking pictures, he began cursing at me.
I nearly froze, and smiled, but also I froze. I never snapped his photo until he was just ducking into back seat of the car.
Some of the items police found were thought to belong to Observatory Books, an antiquarian books and maps shop in downtown Juneau, Campbell said.
“The one burglary that I was told about was the Observatory, because the maps were fairly distinctive,” he said.
There were a couple of vehicles in the lot on the house’s east side.
One, a very dark colored BMW sport utility vehicle had places in the windshield that had been broken.
The telltale impact marks spider webbed from the upper passenger side.
The doors were open – the passenger side front door window was rolled down halfway or out of its runners and fallen partially -- and police were looking through the back. A tire lies on the ground, between the BMW and a dark-colored Jeep.
A two-door silver Honda was parked on the side of the road, its back-rear tire flat and no hubcaps visible.
It had a small spoiler on the trunk, and the hood looked like it had been released, but not open. There’s a crack in the rear bumper that’s visible from the street.
Someone had piled material on top, material like you might see from a tent or rain gear, Red-and-black and blue-and-gray. Maybe the blue cloth is a hoodie or jacket.
Officer Michael Wise stands behind the cars, holding up a cellphone in his left, blue latex-gloved hand and talks into the mic end, analyzing details and retailing – or maybe recording – the information.
Wooden frames and some refuse were leaned against the overgrown hillside behind the house. Cow’s parsnip stood tall and dried out.
It’s autumn in Southeast Alaska.
Stolen maps
The Observatory hasn’t been open since April.
A sign says closed on the front door of the blue shop located at 299 North Franklin Street. Some community posters are still in the door, too.
Owner Dee Longenbaugh is ill and unable to work.
She’s collected maps from all over the world.
There’s a window in the back that’s boarded up. But you can still peer through the other windows.
In early September, someone broke into the bookstore and stole a pile of maps and charts, among other items.
Police say the intruder or intruders forced their way through a door. A window was also used to gain access.
Family described the shop as a “violent scene,” according to Juneau Empire reporter Paula Ann Solis.
Whoever committed the crime trashed the place.
Longenbaugh hoped that the community could help police with leads.
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