Great escape mystery solved

MARY LOCHNER

June 12, 2008 at 11:40AM AKST

The story of the man who allegedly gave Dillingham police the slip on Saturday, May 31, soon gathered the dynamic force of a myth.

Calls cascaded in to the police department from worried citizens who wanted to know more about the criminal on the loose who they’d heard broke out of the local jail. A major Alaska news organization, KTUU Channel 2 News, dialed Dillingham police to ask about what they heard were two jailbirds who’d flown the coop.

By Monday, June 2, the story, with the evolutionary force of a cold virus, had morphed again: This time, Dillingham police received a call from a concerned citizen who’d heard that two prisoners, male, had escaped Alaska State Troopers on the way to the airport during transport.

“It didn’t happen,” Dillingham Police Chief Richard Thompson wrote in a series of e-mails to quiet rising concerns about the purported prison break. “It was a relatively quiet weekend. Some folks are genuinely frightened, but perhaps there just hasn’t been enough drama lately to take some people’s minds off their daily problems.”

Dillingham police did pursue a man the morning of Saturday, May 31, Thompson said, and he thinks that incident may be the genesis of the prison-break rumor.

But the man wasn’t a prisoner. Dillingham police received a call around 10 a.m. that day from a driver who reported being run off the road by another driver who seemed intoxicated.

When Dillingham police, backed up by Alaska State Troopers, responded to the incident and tried to pull the person over for investigation, he got out of his vehicle and fled on foot, Thompson said.

The incident occurred in the Windmill Hill area, according to Thompson.

Channel 2 News called Dillingham police later that day asking about two escaped prisoners, Thompson said.

A similar hot tip came in to KDLG radio station at 6:30 a.m. Monday, June 2, while reporter Adam Kane was preparing for the 7:04 a.m. news broadcast.

“I got a call from a source who’s usually very accurate,” Kane said. “He knows a lot of people in the city and listens to police scanners.”

Kane said his source reported hearing buzz on police scanners about two prisoners escaping Alaska State Trooper custody during a prisoner transport on the way to the airport, and that one escapee had been reacquired, while the other was still at large.

Kane said he called Dillingham police and was told they could not comment until Thompson arrived to the police station.

The police chief came by KDLG after the story ran on the morning broadcast. KDLG ran a retraction on the noon news broadcast.

State troopers confirmed they did not lose any prisoners during transport that day or since.

Kane said the story proved to be a live-and-learn experience.

“I’ve been in city about a month and been a reporter about three weeks,” Kane said.

“This is one of my first accidents. I did get the police chief’s home phone number in case there’s something like this again, then I’ll call and we’ll get it straightened out before goes on radio.”

Meanwhile, the man who allegedly gave Dillingham police the slip is still at large as of Friday, June 6.

“We have the person identified and we’re finishing up the interviews necessary to secure the arrest,” Thompson said.

Because an arrest warrant for the suspect had not yet been issued at this writing, Richardson said police could not release the man’s name.

Mary Lochner can be reached at (907) 348-2438 or (800) 770-9830, ext. 438.