The Alaska State Troopers successfully stopped a burglary in progress in Nikiski with the assistance of an observant neighbor on Tuesday morning, AST reported.

At 8:51 am, troopers received a call from Nikiski caller saying they “believed someone was inside his neighbor’s house.” The caller also told troopers that the neighbor was away for the winter in Texas and the house was supposed to be empty for the winter.

Troopers immediately responded to the location and began an investigation. They would find that the back door of the residence had been forced open. Inside, they would discover that a gun safe had been cut into with power tools. A search would show that no one was now in the residence. 

Searching outside, they would discover the suspect, identified as 35-year-old Michael Curtiss, laying in the snow behind the house, trying to conceal himself from the officers. He was taken into custody and charged with Burglary I x2, Criminal Mischief III and V. He was also found to have an active warrant for violating his conditions of release in a Kasilof burglary/theft/weapons case issued just a week before.

He was transported to Kenai where he was remanded to the Wildwood Pretrial Facility where Vinelink shows he still remains in custody.

  arrest, burglary, curtiss, kasilof, michael, nikiski, theft, warrants, weapons