Haines police arrested one or more people for the Sept. 5 and Sept. 15 break-ins at the borough’s public library.
Police declined to say who was arrested and how many will be charged. The person or persons are cooperating with police, and the department does not want to scare away suspects in other crimes from cooperating with police in the future, said officer Chris Brown.
“They (the suspects) are doing something rare and are trying to make up for it,” Brown said.
No charging papers were filed at the district court clerk’s office as of close-of-business on Wednesday. Brown declined to say what was stolen from the library, but indicated some items had been returned.
No one collected the $500 reward that police offered because the department did not receive any tips that led to the arrest. Brown credited joint legwork by him and the force’s other two officers – Josh Dryden and Brayton Long – for finding the suspects.
“If we had one less officer here, we wouldn’t have been able to do that,” Brown said. The size of the Haines Police department is an issue in the current borough assembly election.
Last Friday’s vandalism closed the library for that day, and caused the Haines Borough Assembly’s candidate forum to be moved from there to the assembly chambers.
Previous library break-ins occurred once in 2013 and twice in 2009.