A suspect is in custody after a month-long string of burglaries at Petersburg businesses. The Petersburg Police Department arrested 27-year-old Zachary Bray November 22 on several burglary and drug-related charges.
The arrest started with a package at the Petersburg Post Office. Petersburg police say that Postmaster Kim Aulbach had several suspicious interactions with Bray about a package he was attempting to retrieve, addressed to Zack Martinez.
Police Chief Jim Kerr said her instincts that something was off got the ball rolling.
“Her attention to detail in using her training that they receive – to be able to think that something was up with that package. I mean, you have to give her some definite kudos for putting that together and contacting the right people,” he said.
Aulbach contacted Postal Inspector Alex Brown after an attempted break-in at the Post Office on November 16. Brown got a federal search warrant for the package and sent the warrant to the Petersburg Police Department.
That same day Petersburg officer Jared Popp searched the package and found nearly 15 grams of suspected counterfeit M30 oxycodone pills containing fentanyl.
Five days later the Petersburg Police Department, Alaska Wildlife Troopers and United States Postal Inspectors served a search warrant to Bray’s residence.
The home was full of things commonly used for drug sales and consumption like baggies, foil, and pipes. But officers also found a tote full of merchandise that matched items stolen from The 420 marijuana store late last month. And officers also found clothing that the suspect had been wearing in security camera footage both during the 420 burglary and other recent burglaries.
Officers said that Bray told them that he had attempted to break into the Post Office to get the package of suspected fentanyl pills. He said that a friend in New Mexico had offered to send him the pills to sell after he had “a rough summer fishing season.” Bray said he’d been getting threats from an alleged drug dealer in New Mexico demanding money, and he feared for his safety. Officers said he admitted to stealing money from several local businesses – El Zarape Mexican Restaurant, The 420, Petersburg Moose Lodge, and Blomster Hus. He said he’d broken into those places to get money to send to his contacts in New Mexico when they started demanding cash.
Bray was initially arrested on one felony drug trafficking charge, five felony burglary charges, four felony and misdemeanor theft charges and six felony and misdemeanor criminal mischief charges. Since then, the ten charges of theft and criminal mischief were dropped, citing lack of probable cause. But Police Chief Jim Kerr says that’s just due to a lack of detail in the charging documents.
“Those will be added back at grand jury,” he said. “We didn’t have all the damage estimates.”
Kerr says that the department is certain that Bray was acting alone, and that the drug trafficking is not related to last month’s drug bust of six people for drug trafficking charges.
He says that the arrest would not have been possible without help from the public – including from businesses around town that were not burglarized. Several businesses shared exterior security footage with the police department.
“For those businesses to go through hours of their surveillance footage to help us piece together a timeline and follow the person through town,” he said, “I mean, yeah, the police department’s the one that arrested him. But basically, it was a group effort.”
Bray is in custody at the Petersburg jail. His bail has been set at $20,000. If he remains in custody, his next hearing will be December 1. If he is released on bail, his next hearing will be December 8.
Bray has been appointed a public defender, who did not respond to a request for comment.
