The first snowfall in a month left a slushy mess in Anchorage on Friday, but the weather is expected to get a little bit brighter by Halloween.
Snow fell over Anchorage for most of Friday and accumulated up to three inches in some areas, National Weather Service meteorologist Julia Ruthford said Friday night.
The Anchorage Police Department also said the weather caused some chaos on the roads. Police spokeswoman Renee Oistad said the department received reports of 21 vehicles in distress and 19 car crashes -- five with reported injuries.
The winter weather also caused a school bus headed for Bear Valley Elementary School with three children on board to slide into a ditch. The incident caused an hour and a half closure on a portion of DeArmoun Road near Carita Lane. No one was injured. Parents picked up their children and took them the rest of the way to school.
In East Anchorage, more mayhem ensued when a 35-year-old man took advantage of the weather by stealing cars from women as they were brushing off snow, police said.
According to APD, at 9:31 a.m officers responded to a home on East 41st Avenue after a man reported finding another man in his garage. The homeowner sprayed the suspect with bear spray and sent him running.
Then, one street over, a woman was brushing snow off her car with the keys in the ignition when a man pushed her to the ground and stole it.
At 12:40 p.m. police received a similar report. This time, a 93-year-old woman was pushed to the ground as she cleaned snow off her Buick. The woman was able to give police a description, which matched the description of the suspects in the break-in and first vehicle theft.
When police found the Buick and tried to stop the driver, he drove off, leading officers on a wild chase across the city. The chase ended on the Glenn Highway when all the Buick's tires went flat. The suspect then got out of the car and ran into a wooded area near the Muldoon exits, where officers arrested him, according to APD.
Police identified the suspect as 35-year-old Anthony Conway, who was already wanted on other felony warrants, police said. He was last charged on Wednesday for failing to stop at the direction of an officer and driving without a valid driver's license. Additional charges had not yet been filed by Friday night, according to online court records.
Snow is expected to continue in the Anchorage area into Saturday morning, but in a NWS public forecast, the service wrote that sunshine is expected to break through by the afternoon. Temperatures will still be in the upper 20s to mid-30s for trick-or-treaters.
More snow is expected early next week.
Tegan Hanlon contributed reporting to this story.