The Midtown Walmart, located on A Street and Benson, has long been a magnet for Anchorage’s vagrant and homeless population. An investigation by the Landmine has revealed that those problems have resulted in thousands of calls to the Anchorage Police Department (APD) over a two-year period.
In October, the store was shut down after a man was shot and killed in the middle of the day. It’s common to see tents and people partying and drinking on the sidewalk of A Street not far from the entrance of the store.
Walking around in the parking lot or inside the store can feel more like being in a mental institution than shopping in the middle of Alaska’s largest city.
In September, the Landmine received a tip that Walmart management was threatening to close the store due to theft and constant disruption from vagrants. Walmart corporate later told the Landmine there are no plans to close the store. However, last month several Walmart executives were in town and met with city officials. It’s not clear why they were in town, but it doesn’t take a genius to assume it had something to do with the problems their store faces on a daily basis.
A source in the Anchorage Police Department reports that the Walmart on C Street in Anchorage is considering closing due to the number of calls they have to make to police to deal with the vagrants plaguing their employees and customers. A manager at Walmart would not discuss it,…
— The Alaska Landmine (@alaskalandmine) September 24, 2025
I started to wonder just how many police calls the Midtown Walmart generates. It turns out that question is easier asked than answered.
On September 24, I submitted the following records request through the APD records portal:
I would like a list of all the calls made from the Walmart on A Street (3101 A St, Anchorage, AK 99503) and a list of any and all fines they have been issued for excessive use of calling APD during the time frame requested.
Six weeks later APD informed me that payment was needed for the requested records. I paid them the $63.10 they requested.
A week later, on November 11, I received a 67-page PDF showing more than 2,000 calls for service to APD from the Midtown Walmart between 9/1/2023 and 9/24/2025. Calls included things like assault, shoplifting, harassment, trespassing, robbery, disorderly conduct, and many more. But the PDF sent to me was hard to sort or convert to Excel.
I decided to call APD’s records center for some help. After being on hold for almost 30 minutes, I was told what I was asking for was too complicated and that I would need to come in and talk to someone.
I had a friend help me get the data into Excel. The format made it difficult, but it showed 2,244 calls for service were made over the two-year span. That averages to three calls per day.
I reached out to Gina Romero, APD’s director of community relations, to see if the data sort was correct. After a lot of back and forth over a three-day period, she said the location had 1,766 calls between 9/1/2023 and 11/15/2025 (I asked her to expand that dates from when I sent in my original request in September).
She sent me a cleaner Excel file, which shows the data could be obtained in days rather than the nearly two months it took me to get the raw data.
Romero explained the initial data I received was “unanalyzed” and that “any APD initiated calls to that area are also taken out.”
When asked why officer initiated calls were removed, Romero said, “Those are initiated by officers for a variety of reasons. Those are still recorded in the data but are not a true snapshot of Calls for Service to the area which is why we pulled them out.”
Romero says APD has partnered with local businesses to help reduce crime. She told the Landmine, “Stopping theft at the source is key to reducing crime throughout the community and this will continue to be a focus in 2026. This has resulted in more than 60 people charged, with several of those chronic offenders. Additionally, the detail has helped to recover stolen property resulting in a total loss recover of at least $58,000 so far. The retail theft detail began in late September and will go through December 31. As mentioned, APD will continue to focus on retail theft in 2026.”
It’s unclear how that is going. A visit to the Midtown Walmart today showed multiple items under lock and key including nearly all electronics, batteries, soap, shampoo, and most personal care products. There were also multiple vagrants spotted in the store, the parking lot, and on the street.
Excellent work! I work in a store across Benson and dealing with shoplifters is a daily occurrence. Even when you catch them in the act they still won’t give the stuff back. And they trash the bathrooms, disgusting. They don’t care because they know there is no jail time for them. And we can’t touch them, or chase them. Because then we get fired
Very believable.
Your employer does not have faith in your ability to intervene without triggering a lawsuit that has a substantial likelihood of succeeding.
Sad, but true.
It’s not a matter of faith. It’s more a matter of getting sued, or having a supercop employee get shot or stabbed, which probably usually winds up in litigation as well, over a 10$ box of cereal or some nonsense. Just not worth it.
Okay, maybe you’d prefer the word “confidence” to “faith”. Fine.
Bottom line: Corporate retailers don’t trust their employees to handle theft well. They plainly prefer to socialize the cost of theft to customers in the form of higher prices.
Interesting that it’s the corporate overlords fault? I can also confirm that this is the policy of many local retailers owned by Anchorage voters who are not particularly wealthy. Maybe our laws and their pattern of enforcement (/patterns of liability findings) make “socializing the costs through higher prices” the objectively safer path for ANY retailer. It is like we don’t want people to sort out petty theft/petty thieves on their own or something.
Because then we could get killed.
There, fixed that for you
If no fines have been issued this is a major problem. I disagree with issuing fines for police calls period but, if you are going to fine one business, you damn well need to fine all of them. Don’t care if it’s Bronson or La France, we better not be doing that. Please don’t even start about what the current and last administration have/are done/doing to pick and choose prosecutions of political enemies. This is local and we don’t need to make every discussion about R and Ds’s. It’s wrong and doesn’t matter. If it’s happening in Anchorage it’s sick… Read more »
Why should the store get fined? The store needs support. The store isnt the problem. The fucking vagrants are the problem. They are living a lifestyle that should not be permitted. They should have 3 choices. 1. Leave Anchorage. 2. Jail. 3. Stop using and get a job. Continuing to be a homeless animal should not ne on the menu of choices.
If a homeowner or small business owner calls for service more than 3-5 times a year, the muni can and will charge them $500 a call…. why should walmart be any different?
Really? You don’t know why? Really?
OBVIOUSLY it’s because Walmart is a massive business that sees thousands of customers daily just at this store.
What homeowner or small business sees thousands of customers daily?
C’mon, use your head.
I think Clinton’s comment just went zoooomm straight over your head like a fighter jet
Walmart encourages this behavior by declining to prosecute.
Until Walmart closes this location, one can only conclude that their current approach is the most profitable one they can think of for this location.
Clearly Walmart sets its prices to a level that socializes to paying customers the theft and damage losses they incur.
They socialize with customers about theft? What do they do, take them out for a steak dinner at Sullivan’s to discuss it?
Get a dictionary, friend.
Why does a mega-corporation like Walmart which is predominantly owned by the wealthiest family on the planet need taxpayer support? Providing for their own security might send them into the red?
And exactly what lifestyle, herr Himmler, ist permitted in ze Reich now? Ze Brown Shirt one?
They’re not fines, they’re charges.
The same as you getting charged for an ambulance call, minus insurance.
Get it?
Why in the world is Walmart getting fined for calling the police about trespassers? Is that not what APD is supposed to enforce?
I think the point Scott is trying to make is that APD has had a long standing policy of fining individual people and businesses for what they deem “excessive requests for Police response” in the greater Anchorage area, and that if APD is continuing to enforce that policy on individual citizens and small business owners, it would be extremely unfair and un ethical for them to not do the same to a big corporation like Walmart with over 2k calls for response in a 2 year period. I think that’s his point.
Exactly.
Why is it being called a “fine”? More like a surcharge. Cops dont work for free and why should taxpayers pay to subsidize large corporate entities like Walmart? It’s already bad enough that the government subsidizes them anyway by allowing Walmart to cheat alot of their employees out of health care and paying them crap wages so they’re forced to enroll in medicaid and food stamps just to make ends meet.
“……..excessive requests for Police response………”
How can this even be possible? If Walmart has video of shoplifting, violence, or trespassing (repeat visits by banned individuals), and if Walmart doesn’t have the legal ability to arrest violators, how can they submit “excessive requests for Police response”?
Not really. I mean, after all, anyone who shoplifts from Walmart actually deserves a community service award
“………anyone who shoplifts from Walmart actually deserves a community service award……..”
But I suppose if somebody stole your car and destroyed it, they should go to prison, no?
“Why in the world is Walmart getting fined for calling the police about trespassers?”
-Police Dork
They aren’t. You made that up.
You speak with such authority. How do you know Walmart, and other businesses are not being charged? For trespassers? Or other crimes?
The point is that is factual and not made up. People are also missing the point in trying to make Walmart the big evil corporate giant. I just don’t understand how anyone should be fined for calling the police for things the police are supposed to take care of.
Well. the 40% who vote are going to have to vote less liberal progressive leaders and more for moderate conservative leaders
You all know who needs to be at the legislative level to enforce Anchorage’s laws
So don’t complain. You all put the Assembly members, Mayor, and district Representatives and Senators there over your neighborhood districts
40%? Only in our wildest dreams, could we get 40% to turn out for a municipal election.
But your point is well taken.
Nobody votes because who’s there to vote for? Tweedily dee or tweedily dum? The homeless and mental health issues in anchorage have never changed, it only gets worse, and both sides of the Two Party Fraud System cashes in on it, or their cronies do.
Bronson’s pick for health department director was a real champ, wasn’t he? And so thoroughly vetted too. Impressive.
Good point.
There definitely wasn’t any shoplifting at this Walmart when right-wing Dave Bronson was Mayor of Anchorage from July 2021 to July 2024.
Just think of all the things independent Mayor Suzanne LaFrance did to increase crime there. I mean, she . . . uh . . ?
Recall that the assembly intentionally stopped or interfered with everything that Bronson tried to do. And you ass hats just kept on rewarding them for their efforts. You showed them that you APPROVE of what they did. Now you complain about the consequences as if you weren’t to blame
What Bronson tried to do to reduce the soring homelessness problem during his term was consistently idiotic.
Flying them to Los Angeles was idiotic.
Giving them free reign in Centennial Park was idiotic.
Cimmitting millions for his useless “Homeless Navigation Center” without assembly approval was idiotic.
At this point, only the truly dishonest try to defend Bronson’s record in homelessness.
“……soring……..”
I hate to do the grammar Nazi thing on anybody but you, Dan, considering how many times you’ve done it to me. Try “soaring”. Or you can tell me that it’s a “mute” point………
Flying homeless people out of here works. Trump is doing it to illegal immigrants. But he’s also blocking re-entry at the border, too, which Anchorage can’t do…………
“………Just think of all the things independent Mayor Suzanne LaFrance did to increase crime there. I mean, she . . . uh . . ?……….”
Resisted everything the Bronson administration tried to do as an Assembly person. Now it’s her turn as mayor. Let’s see progress.
“You all know who needs to be at the legislative level to enforce Anchorage’s laws”
Hitler?
Sorry APD, making shopping more difficult for paying customers by locking merchandise up is not “Stopping theft at the source …”.
Bizarre.
APD plays no role in how Walmart secures its wares.
It has been proven multiple times in multiple locations; the vast majority of crimes are committed by a small percentage of people. By refusing to incarcerate these people, the state/muni are encouraging crime. This is the third chapter of SB91 of 2016, Criminal Justice “Reform”. They refuse to jail criminals because they don’t have the space, and people like you refuse to pay for more prison space.
I’ll take a moment and remind voters of the history of SB91. The sponsor for that disaster bill was Chuck Kopp. He lost his place in the legislature after the consequences of that bill became a widely-understood boondoggle. He waited 1 election cycle. Then he ran again and WON. People do not remember what he did, they re-elect him, and he takes the message “voters want more of this” back to the legislature. Now, notice he’s on the RINO Brigade. Voters can’t remember longer than 1 election cycle. They keep rewarding our crooked, foolish, greedy, and inept career politicians for… Read more »
Internet Tough Guy talk is cheap.
How much money should Alaska taxpayers spend to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate a repeat shoplifter who steals a $200 drill from Walmart?
$80,000?
$250,000?
Millions?
“……..How much money should Alaska taxpayers spend to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate a repeat shoplifter who steals a $200 drill from Walmart?……….”
I don’t care how much you say they’ll spend, because that scumbag who stole the $200 drill from Walmart has been ripping off people and stores before and will continue unabated until you put him in prison or somebody shoots him when he graduates into carjacking and home invasion.
Frankly I’m shocked to hear the excuses. You are describing a “repeat shoplifter.” Taxpayers are paying the cost of his crime all over town. The same taxpayers who run businesses all over this city. You think it’s nothing, until Mr. Repeat Shoplifter is standing in your kitchen at 3 am. I have literally experienced this: My pitt bull woke me up in the dead of night. I opened my bedroom door, and he bolted after the “repeat shoplifter” who was standing in MY kitchen. Yes. HE IN FACT was a repeat offender. Emboldened by a deliberate apathy for crime amongst… Read more »
Absolutely. Like, when is APD going to start nipping this in the bud by mind reading every person who walks thru the doors anyway?
Critical thinking isn’t exactly your cup of tea is it? It’s ok, the same seems to go for most who post here
“……..APD initiated calls to that area are also taken out……….” Imagine including calls from the public about problems in the store and parking lot. This is an end-around from the disaster of SB91 (criminal justice “reform”) of 2016 which was repealed after just one year after crime skyrocketed. The bottom line is that state and local government are simply releasing criminals, the mentally ill, and narcotics abusers on the public because they have no other choice. They don’t have the facilities to put these losers, and any attempt to fund the construction and operation of said facilities draw out the… Read more »
You mention “private security” … On this topic, I have observed that the Allied Universal private security people at the Loussac and smaller libraries in Anchorage are just plain ineffective and/or lazy. Go to the Loussac Library any day and you will find people sleeping (and snoring), hanging our drunk and even displaying their liquor bottles, having offensive body odor and clothing odor, and using the library for not much more than a place to charge their cell phones. There are published rules and expectations and these are infractions. but there is nobody at the libraries to enforce them. People… Read more »
Charging a cell is an infraction?
How about using the toilet?
“………the Allied Universal private security people at the Loussac and smaller libraries in Anchorage are just plain ineffective……..” Private security is limited by who hires them. Even federal agencies who hire security hires them with limited authorities. For example, gate security contractors for JBER are armed, but they don’t have legal arrest powers except for forced entry violations. Their sidearms are for immediate defense only. I pay for residential response private security. They will come to my home upon intrusion, but they’ll be calling the police while enroute. They aren’t armed. Only sworn, certified law enforcement officers have arrest powers,… Read more »
“I pay for residential response private security.”
-Reggie Taylor
lol
Wow.
Is that some sort of crime in your very special mind, Dan?
Reveal more, Reggie. Please.
😀
“……..Reveal more, Reggie. Please……..”
Seems pretty simple, even for a challenged mind and spirit such as yours, Dan. I pay a private security company for monitored security. If one of the many sensors go off (fire, intrusion, low interior temps, water flooding, etc), they call my cell. If I don’t answer, they go to the home.
Residential. Response. Private. Security.
I’d attach a pic if I could for you.
Is that some sort of crime? Is it unfair to criminals? As noted, the security personnel are unarmed. Seems very liberal. Safe. Innocuous. Even for you.
Need more details?
The mentally ill are “losers”? Because the state lacks a facility or resources to help them? And the one that did (API) was decertified from Medicare by the feds because it was practicing torture on its patients?
I have a good idea who and where the real loser is, but ill refrain from drawing a road map. Suffice to say, try looking in the mirror. I bet you fancy yourself a “christian” too…
“……..The mentally ill are “losers”? Because the state lacks a facility or resources to help them?……..”
Yes, they are. They’ve lost completely. If you rely on government, you will eventually lose. I don’t care if you consider me Christian or not, but the Church has no obligation or ability to provide free mental health care, either.
Life provides no guarantees of success. Failure is rampant. If you lose your mind, especially if you’ve abused narcotics, you’re done. You’ve lost. If you think that’s unjust, go ahead: fix it.
I have gone to mid town Walmart to do my shopping I have many problems with that store there people that are doing ORC crimes in there they are under some company named Spark drivers or trend source mystery shopping company (fraudulent) the employee only scans like three items and they walk out the store with multiple of items the individual will go back in the store to do it again one person did it three times in an hour the employee never questioned it or store management or there strategy security company
“ORC crimes”?
“trend source mystery shopping company (fraudulent)”?
Punctuation?
Incomprehensible.
“……..“ORC crimes”?………”
Organized Retail Crime. Google can be your friend if you use it for other than just bolstering your ideology.
Was that some sort of attempt at English? I think the vagrants you’re talking of are actually more literate than you are
I’m glad to see Jeff’s readers reacting to this. Now, how many of you are going to vote for conservative leadership on the assembly? Because it’s all your same favorite folks who CREATED this mess and PROFIT from it, who you keep reelecting.
Ridiculous.
No one on Anchorage’s Assembly profits from homelessness.
“……..No one on Anchorage’s Assembly profits from homelessness………”
Do you deny that the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness did very well financially during this long crisis of homelessness in Anchorage?
Has nothing to do with anything I wrote.
Courtesy Reggie “Ooh! Squirrel” Taylor
Do you deny that former Anchorage Assemblywoman Meg Zalatel was the Executive Director of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness while serving on the Assembly?
“Nothing to do with anything” you wrote? Nothing at all?
She’s not on the assembly. Left months ago.
And when she was in the assembly, she didn’t vote on homeless issues.
“From the start of her tenure at the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, Zaletel regularly recused herself from voting on measures that bumped up against homelessness issues after consulting extensively with the ethics counsel.”
Reggie posts despite being very unsmart.
You call that some sort of “win”? She was on the Assembly, and she made money with her/their malfeasance with regard to the homeless issue. Period.
Good riddance. Unfortunately, the people of that district just elected another loser. They deserve what they get.
Same for Cameron Perez-Verdia then? Mmmm yeah once Meggie showed the assembly that you really CAN vote city dollars into your own pocket by running a homeless services non-profit, Cam-boy started one for himself!! And the West Anch citizens re-elected him his April. So, I’m afraid you’re sorely mistaken, Danny my boy!
Thanks for covering this since apparently ADN wont for some reason. Wal mart pulling out of Anchorage would be unbelievably bad for the city and tens of thousands of citizens, not to mention the hundreds of employees that work there. Nothing will change until we get a new police chief which means we need a new mayor that is tough on crime. Were all paying for this in one way or another. Higher prices at ALL stores to cover lost revenue from high shrink and not being able to use the bathroom in the majority of town. The silver lining… Read more »
Bronson must have been weak on crime also?
The prosecution of crime in the court system is a state function, not municipal. The police can arrest somebody many multiple times if the state keeps releasing them, and crime statistics remain high. It is proven that most crime is committed by a relatively small number of repeat offenders.
“The prosecution of crime in the court system is a state function, not municipal.”
-Reggie Taylor
Um, no.
The Municipality of Anchorage has a Municipal Prosecutor, whose employees prosecute crimes.
muniDOTorg/Departments/legal/criminal/Pages/default.aspx
Never post, Reggie, you are unsmart.
“………Never post, Reggie, you are unsmart……….”
I’ve addressed an Anchorage municipal magistrate before, Dan. I’ve been through the state court system numerous times over the past half century as well. The muni prosecutor deals with misdemeanors and other petty matters. All felonies are run through the state court system. I don’t advocate prison for misdemeanors. I advocate it for felonies………the first time, and every time.
Try to avoid being an asshole, Dan. You do it well, but perhaps you should try to excel in other matters?
lol
Admit you’re wrong, Reggie. If you can. Ever.
Dan, this isn’t about me, and it certainly isn’t about you. It’s about crime and the failure of government to effectively deal with it. The municipal prosecutor and magistrate aren’t going to get it done. We need another thousand prison beds and state court aggression toward crime. You don’t like that? I don’t care.
BTW, how’s the crime down there in Vegas? Last winter it was real touchy. I had an “incident” at the Walmart on Boulder Ave.
“ I’ve addressed an Anchorage municipal magistrate”
There’s no such thing as an “Anchorage municipal magistrate”. They are 3rd district magistrate judges. State level – not municipal.
Every conservative wants to be tough on crime but none of them are willing to pay for it. You get what you pay for – which in this case is nothing.
“………There’s no such thing as an “Anchorage municipal magistrate”. They are 3rd district magistrate judges. State level – not municipal……..” I can’t be wrong when I claim them to be state, then wrong again when I call them municipal. You and Dan need to coordinate. Can we agree that magistrates hear misdemeanors? Or would you like to argue that, too? “………Every conservative wants to be tough on crime but none of them are willing to pay for it. You get what you pay for – which in this case is nothing……..” I want to pay. Today. I want prison beds.… Read more »
“……..The Municipality of Anchorage has a Municipal Prosecutor, whose employees prosecute crimes………”
Yeah. Right.
https://www.propublica.org/article/criminal-case-dismissals-anchorage-alaska
“………The Municipality of Anchorage has a Municipal Prosecutor, whose employees prosecute crimes……….” Let me try this with you from another perspective, Dan: You post what I quoted, and I’ve posted a link from September of 2024 lamenting the extreme failure of the muni prosecutors office to prosecute misdemeanors, with the vast majority simply ignored into an obscurity of administrative haypiles. I’ve pointed out the problem of an ideology throughout western civilization (U.S., Canada, Europe) of reducing incarceration for both crimes and mental illness, and actually financed elections of criminal prosecutors by the likes of George Soros. I’ve cited SB91 of… Read more »
“……..Most of the homeless “crimes” are misdemeanors, both of muni ordinances and state law. So the problem truly is the municipal prosecution process.
Correct? No? There actually is no problem? Which is it? Pray tell……..”
I’ll note no answer from Svatass, because he loses with whatever answer he shits up.
Yup. One term, deep problem, no Assembly cooperation. No headway. But LaFrance has almost the complete Assembly as ideological allies. Misdemeanor crime should be beaten back down in short order……………if they only had the jail space to put offenders.
Alaska’s jails/prisons are currently at maximum capacity…………..
Well, the ADN actually had an article about this today. Imagine that….so very typical.