the lapd, brian alexik, and the strange condo

some weeks ago, a gas leak was reported in a certain building. when the lapd tried to evacuate unit 701, the inhabitant refused to open the door which was a real problem as the gas seemed to be coming from it. when the police forced open the door, they were just in time to see its resident "scamper" down the fire escape carrying a couple of dufflebags. a pursuit failed, but in early june, the police did catch up with this man, named brian alexik (although known by a few other names) hiding out at his girlfriend's place. an arrest was made, but i'm getting ahead of myself... back to the condo.

there wasn't a gas leak. alexik was simply running a generator to supply his electrical needs as his power had been cut off. this is a bit amazing as this was a $3,400/month condo (some reports just round that up to $4,000) and he originally paid advance rent in cash. the days of plentiful cash were gone because he was on the verge of getting evicted. it's a bit mysterious as to WHY he got behind on his bills because he was engaged in a variety of criminal pursuits. for one thing, he was counterfeiting money.

so, we have the counterfeited money of which the police found about $15,000 worth. the way this guy was counterfeiting money was to bleach $1 bills and then reprint them as $50 or $100 bills. a lot of money orders were also found in his apartment.


ironically, this apartment was right next door to the u.s. federal reserve and the police found evidence that alexik had been watching it through binoculars. people have different theories as to why he was doing this... everything to plotting robbery to watching a particular person to general paranoia.

one bedroom had been converted to "a makeshift machine shop" that had "tools scattered around." in this, alexik had done some weapons modifications although the weapons reported left at the apartment were an AK-47, a sawed-off shotgun, and a pistol. i've read some descriptions of what sort of modifications he was doing it doesn't sound like any of these weapons would necessarily be what he was working on, but idk.

other interesting items were some things to make false passports, some things the lapd assumed were drug-related (not sure if they were, but alexik does have a new jersey drug conviction from 1996). apparently, he hadn't made himself a fake driver's license because, more recently, he'd been caught driving without a license.

alexik also had photos of him with several celebrities. the lapd says he had some connections in the world of fashion and cosmetics. they opined that he had a way about him that drew some people to him. because of this sort of thing, they assumed he'd fled the country when, in fact, he was about a mile up the road.

alexik also had a number of photos of himself with different hairstyles, etc. several people seemed to think his photos look very familiar. one person swore he'd seen alexik's photo advertising a porn site (this was not a pornographic photo, btw). i don't know about that, but a lot of people did feel like they'd seen him before although most assumed he just resembled someone who was famous.

back to the condo... in the attic, the lapd found some interesting tilework.. apparently, alexik had wiled away his spare hours not devoted to counterfeiting, weapons modification, and forging to make a lovely "replica" of the cia shield. i put the quoties because it's not exact or anything. according to some reports he did some lovely tilework in his previous apartment although he used something else for inspiration. hanging over the lovely shield (which was on the floor) was a portrait of hugo chavez. at first, the lapd thought alexik had an obsession with the cia, but they say they didn't find anything else of that nature in his condo. although, when you handmake a 5-feet wide tile tribute, why would you NEED anything else?

the secret service now has the four hard drives taken from alexik's computers and the lapd is hoping to learn wtf this dude was up to. even though they have him in custody under $1 million bail, he doesn't feel like enlightening them. the secret service deals with counterfeiting in case anyone was wondering why them.

so, various people have been guessing ... personally, his set-up sounds like something from a movie or comic book (because it was in an expensive condo, a place ill suited to, say, a machine shop), but i know little about these sorts of things. i do like the guess that he's part of organized crime with a really good b.s.  story (for people he'd like to impress) that he has um... government connections. but, of course, who knows...

the lapd may be withholding information due to their on-going investigation, so there may not be as much mystery as there seems. one reason i think this is they've already arrested someone else he knows on weapons charges. his girlfriend was also arrested for aiding him in his flight from police.

to me, there are two main mysteries.. first, with all these money making methods (one of which is literal) he had, why couldn't he pay his bills? second, WTF is up with his freaking art project? the first mystery could be answered, i suppose, if he had a roommate and that person is the one who did a lot of these things, but it doesn't sound as if such a person exists. still, if this was a comic book, they would.