The community of Sterling is coming together in an effort to stop the amount of property thefts that have been happening in the area.
Tommy Patterson said he was headed down to lock up his boat motor on the Moose River Monday night when he surprised thieves in the process of stealing it.
Patterson: “And as I drive down there I see there’s another boat behind our boat on the shoreline so I get down closer and I here this canoe just starts paddling off, I see two guys in it so I shine my headlights on it, start yelling at them ‘Stop right there, you’re not going to get away.’ I start honking my horn, I got on the phone and called Kenny [and said] ‘Get on your four wheeler, get down to your boat’.”
Kenny Merkes and his family charged down their boardwalk toward the river after Tommy called.
Merkes: “Dive in the water, chasing them, just six inches away from grabbing the edge of the canoe, my wife and pregnant daughter were ready to be right in behind me if I tipped that canoe, they were madder than I am. So the guys are six inches away, I can’t quite reach them and I tell my daughter start the boat, untie the boat, we’re going to catch these guys.”
Once the Merkes’ began pursuing the thieves via boat with a spotlight alongside Patterson in his boat, the suspects in the canoe bailed out and fled into the woods.
The Alaska State Troopers also responded during the boat chase.
Eventually the yellow aluminum Grumman canoe(pictured above) with blue paddles was found along the riverbank, still containing the stolen motor and a couple of fishing poles.
Merkes said property thefts in Sterling seem to be on the rise and he wanted to increase community awareness.
Merkes: “We have a real tight knit community here, we’ve got a lot of people who help keep an eye out for other people’s belongings when they’re not home, we call ourselves the Sterling Brotherhood. With all these thefts going on, we want to end it.”
Anyone with information about the suspects in the yellow canoe are encouraged to call Alaska State Troopers at 262-4453 or Kenai Peninsula Crime Stoppers at 283-8477.
