Police arrested a Juneau man Monday after he allegedly attempted to steal from several downtown businesses.
At about 9:30 a.m., officers cited Michael J. Hoyt for attempting to steal food from Foodland IGA, according to Juneau Police Department spokesperson Erann Kalwara.
“That was our first contact with him that day,” she said.
Then, shortly after 4:30 p.m., police arrested Hoyt again near the Marine View Apartments after he allegedly stole a pair of earrings from The Jewel Box and tried to shoplift bracelets from Midnight Sun Gifts.
JPD received reports about each shoplifting incident downtown. Not knowing that the two incidents were connected, two separate officers were dispatched to handle each, Kalwara said.
“Both reports came in pretty close together,” she said.
It wasn’t until a report of an attempted burglary at Commercial Signs and Printing came in that the three officers handling each case realized they were looking for the same suspect.
Downtown business owner Pat Race wasn’t the person who called to report the break-in, but he did hear it. He was working next door at his business, Lucid Reverie, when he heard a loud noise at the print shop.
“It sounded like somebody was slamming the door,” Race told the Empire Wednesday.
What he heard was actually somebody kicking the door in.
When Race went to investigate he noticed the busted door and saw Hoyt through the print shop’s window. He confronted Hoyt, who told Race that he was there waiting on a friend. Suspicious of Hoyt’s story, Race said he’d wait with him.
It wasn’t long before a print shop employee — the person who reported the break-in — emerged from the back of the shop, and Hoyt took off running down Franklin Street toward Marine View. Race pursued him.
“I just kind of jogged along next to him and said ‘Michael stop, this is dumb. Why are you running?’” Race said.
Hoyt and Race only made it about a block before the three officers who were searching for Hoyt arrested him and took him to Lemon Creek Correctional Center.
Hoyt faces two counts of concealing merchandise, one count of larceny and one count of criminal mischief, all of which are misdemeanors. Prior to Monday, JPD had cited Hoyt with nine misdemeanors — ranging from assault to more criminal mischief and larceny — this year, according to online court documents.
According to JPD’s daily incident report, alcohol was a factor in the string of attempted shopliftings.
• Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.
