A Soldotna man called into Alaska State troopers and 5 AM on Tuesday morning, and reported “that his vehicle, a tan 1999 Lexus RX300 SUV, had been stolen from the Soldotna Safeway parking lot earlier that morning,” troopers revealed.

Minutes after the stolen vehicle report was filed by the owner, identified as 36-year-old Soldotna resident, Jerry Dourney, another report came into troopers advising them that a tan Lexus was found on fire near the owner’s registered location close to mile 16 of the Funny River Road. Further investigation would find that the vehicle had struck a power pole near mile 12 Funny River Road, knocking out power to over 690 residences in Soldotna.

Troopers responded to the Dourney residence and questioned Dourney “regarding the situation surrounding the vehicle,” the trooper dispatch reported. Following their investigation, troopers say they arrested Dourney on charges of Driving Under the Influence, filing a False Report, Failure to give Immediate Notice of an Accident, Misconduct Involving Weapons IV, and Criminal Mischief III. Following his arrest, Dourney was transported to Kenai where he was remanded to the Wildwood Pretrial Facility and held without bail.

Homer Electric Association employees responded to the location of the downed power pole, conducted repairs and restored power to the association’s customers.

Dourney’s vehicle was towed from the scene.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

  Alaska, arrest, crash, false report, fire, funny river road, jerry sourney, outage, pole, power, soldotna