The shuttered Sea Galley restaurant building that was destroyed in a Thursday fire had been burglarized twice since it closed in late October, Anchorage police said Friday.
The fire in the Midtown restaurant, which had been slated to be demolished this week, began around 6 a.m. and took about 20 fire units hours to put out, fire officials at the scene said.
Anchorage police spokeswoman Kendra Doshier said although her agency didn’t receive any reports about squatters or loiterers at the restaurant on Credit Union Drive in the months after it closed, police did respond to two burglary calls there in as many months.
Officers responded to the first burglary around noon Nov. 8 to find no one at the building, police said. The back entrance had been forced open, and “undisclosed stolen items” had been taken. There was also damage to the property, but no arrests have been made, police said.