They live across the street from Barter Town. They want it gone.

WASILLA — Barter Town, a name derived from the lawless frontier outpost in "Mad Max" movies, sits on a quiet street in a nice neighborhood just off Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

The business sells "used merchandise," according to a state business license. It occupies a large fenced property with a two-story home fronted by a half-finished steel structure surrounded by vehicles, four-wheelers and tarp-covered items.

A hand-painted sign on a closed gate warns that Barter Town doesn't traffic in stolen items.

But Alaska State Troopers say they have retrieved stolen goods from the address.

Ten troopers serviced a warrant there Oct. 4 in connection with an ongoing burglary investigation, according to troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. Why so many troopers? Past incidents with people with warrants located there who didn't want to be taken into custody prompted troopers to have enough law enforcement presence to "deal with any potential situation that arose," Peters wrote in an email.

Troopers in June also arrested Barter Town owner Nicholas White — with a loaded pistol in his pocket and a backpack full of tools — during a report of an apparent break-in at a Wasilla-area house.

White, 31, said in an interview last week he is being unfairly branded a criminal.

He owns the almost 1-acre Barter Town property on North Richmond Lane with family members who also own the property next door, records show.

When contacted for an interview, White asked Alaska Dispatch News not to publish a story because it could unfairly prejudice a jury if the June arrest case goes to trial.

"I have enough people basing their opinions about me on negative social media slander including the troopers," he said in a text message.

Stay put or speak up?

Kyle Muslin, who lives directly across the street from Barter Town, has taken to Facebook in his mission to shut down the business.

The 43-year-old former mechanic who now works in information technology has lived in the neighborhood for about 20 years.

He said Barter Town appeared to get started last year with an "all-day garage sale."

Over the winter, Muslin said, he started seeing people sleeping in cars. Used syringes showed up in his driveway.

Muslin said this year he has witnessed items reported stolen elsewhere going into the business. Security cameras capture late-night drop-offs in duffel bags and pickups.

He also said someone driving a stolen truck stopped at Barter Town early one morning in mid-June and then ran him down in his own driveway, leaving him unhurt but shaken.

The driver sped off, Muslin said, and he called troopers and made a report.

"We kind of lived in fear at first," Muslin said. "Then we started going to social media."

Muslin started making regular posts on Facebook about the goings-on at Barter Town, at times calling out White and others by name. He's counted a core group of 10 people he believes are involved in criminal activity at Barter Town.

Muslin, who has two children, said his daughter spends the night on the floor of his bedroom because she's too scared to sleep in her own room.

"It is scary," he said. "Do you stay put or do you speak up and say, 'I'm not going to let this bad stuff happen in my neighborhood?' "

‘Find free things’

Troopers have not arrested White in connection with any crimes at Barter Town.

He has a generally clean criminal record, save for a 2015 charge of driving under the influence, to which he entered a guilty plea, and a 2014 misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident, according to a state courts database.

But he was arrested in June in a case that remains open.

Troopers responded on June 27 for a reported break-in at a home in another Wasilla-area neighborhood around 1:30 in the morning.

A neighbor heard voices at a house he knew was empty that had been burglarized a week before, according to a sworn affidavit filed with charging documents by Trooper Dugger Cook.

Cook wrote he got to the house and saw a man dressed in black with a bandanna around his neck, later identified as White, kneeling in grass near the front door, who then ran around the back of the house despite trooper orders not to move. He dropped a backpack and continued to run as three troopers yelled at him to stop and get on the ground.

A few steps later, White fell to the ground and Cook tackled him as he tried to get back to his feet.

"The male was physically struggling to get free of my grasp while aggressively reaching both hand(s) towards his abdominal area near his belt line," Cook wrote.

Two troopers got him under control and discovered a loaded Ruger LCP .380 semiautomatic pistol "fully concealed in his right front pocket," according to the affidavit. White told them he didn't declare it to them because he forgot it was there.

The trooper wrote that the dropped backpack held power tool batteries including one with jumper wires attached, tin snips, Allen wrenches, drill bits, wrenches and various screwdriver tips. Another man — James B. Oliveri — was also found hiding in the grass wearing a backpack with similar contents, according to the affidavit.

White told troopers "he and (Oliveri) had gone to the residence to find free things" for his business, Barter Town, Cook wrote.

He was arrested on misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass, possession of burglary tools, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and weapons misconduct for not telling the troopers about the pistol.

Uncertain future

In a brief interview Thursday, White said the line about free items was "incorrect."

He said he did have tools in the backpack, but that didn't make them burglary tools.

"If a person has a gun on their possession that does not make them a criminal," he wrote in a text message after the phone interview. "Having a Dewalt drill does not make someone a burglar."

He said he is a military veteran with a service-connected disability. He said he is deaf and has tinnitus and couldn't hear the troopers' instructions.

White's attorney, Marc Chicklo, said writing a news story about the June arrest would be premature given how early in the process the case is.

The next court hearing in the case is next month. Any trial is months away.

Meanwhile, Barter Town is closed to the public, Chicklo said last week.

If there's any late-night traffic, that's why, he said. "That's not representative of his usual business. That's him being fearful of the police and there being an ongoing investigation."

As of Tuesday, neighbors reported the business appears to have reopened.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the truck incident involving Kyle Muslin occurred in mid-June, not May, as originally reported, and that neighbors are reporting that Barter Town appears to have reopened.