A Minnesota resident was arrested last weekend and charged with burglarizing multiple vehicles, car theft and committing credit card fraud after he was stopped in a stolen vehicle near Moose Pass, according to Alaska State Troopers.
An affidavit by Trooper Sgt. Joseph Miller says Soldotna-based troopers were called around 8 p.m. on June 1 with a report that a Dodge Durango had been stolen from the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage. The caller was tracking their vehicle using their phone, and said it was traveling through Turnagain Pass at “speeds in excess of 100 mph.”
Troopers from both Seward and Soldotna met and stopped the vehicle just past the junction of the Seward and Sterling highways, traveling toward Moose Pass, at around 9 p.m. The driver, 42-year-old Kiril Johnson, failed sobriety tests and told troopers both that he had been speeding and had stolen the car, according to a trooper affidavits.
Johnson was arrested and charged with first-degree vehicle theft and driving under the influence. He was taken to Wildwood Pretrial. The next day, when he was arraigned at the Kenai courthouse, a credit card was found in his wallet with someone else’s name, according to a trooper affidavit. Johnson said he had been given the card in Chicago, but troopers said they contacted the owner and found that they were an Alaska resident who also had left their vehicle at the airport in Anchorage.
The owner of the card told troopers that around $1,000 had been charged to the account, at businesses in the Anchorage airport and in Girdwood, the affidavit says.
Charges were added for first-degree criminal impersonation, fraudulent use of an access device and second-degree theft.
Johnson is scheduled for a court hearing in Seward on June 20.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
