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Lawmakers look to stop large smash and grab thefts
Legislature looking to impose harsher penalties for orchestrated thefts involving two or more suspects aiming to resell stolen goods.
ST PAUL, Minn. — This may be the year lawmakers pass a bill cracking down on organized retail theft, putting harsher penalties into the state law for orchestrated crimes that rise above simple shoplifting.
The legislation is aimed at groups of two or more thieves who go into a store with the intent of stealing items for resale, and may already have buyers lined up for the item through clandestine stolen property fencing rings.
“There’s a different type of enterprise out there, a retail theft enterprise,” Bruce Nustad of the Minnesota Retailers Association told Capitol reporters Monday at a press conference to draw attention to the bill.
The most recent incident occurred Friday night at a Target store in the city of North Saint Paul. Several young men entered the store while it was still open to the public and used a sledgehammer to break display cases to steal electronics.
Two of the have been arrested, but others were still at large as of Monday evening.
“This bill is really just a great effort to separate petty theft — theft that might be done by a family in desperate times — from true criminal activity,” Nustad explained.
“It all comes down to what is the intent of that crime.”
Nustad’s organization and others have been working for the past five years to make organized retail theft its own category of crime with more serious consequences for those convicted. He said 34 states have already enacted similar laws.
In the House, the bill’s being carried by Rep. Zack Stephenson, a Coon Rapids Democrat who works as a prosecutor outside of the legislative session.
“I’ve seen this happen and start to gain momentum and evolve over the last few years,” Rep. Stephenson remarked.
“I’ve seen more and more cases where there are elements of sophistication. It’s very different from someone who’s just taking a crime of opportunity in a retail store, or a one-off case. When you have that enterprise level of sophistication.”
The bill sets a range of charges and prison time, depending on the value of the stolen goods and the offender’s prior record. A maximum of 15 years in prison is being proposed for someone who takes more than $5,000 worth of goods as part of an organized retail theft operation.
The lead author in the Senate is Sen. Ron Latz, a St. Louis Park Democrat who works as a criminal defense lawyer away from his Capitol duties.
“The stuff that gets taken gets moved very quickly. The channels are in operation,” Sen. Latz explained.
“The ones where it’s organized at some level, people are collaborating. They’ve got a business, really, operating to do this.”
The large smash-and-grab events at big box retailers captured on surveillance video make for a lot of headlines and clicks on social media sites. But most of the victims of organized retail theft are small businesses who are ripped by via credit card fraud orchestrated in advance through sophisticated schemes.
“The true victims right now are actually the small retailers who actually cannot afford those losses,” Nustad said, citing the case of Walter Dillon, who owned KKG Kickz sneaker shop in Little Canada.
Dillon closed the store after several break-ins by groups of hooded men who acted quickly and clearly knew what they were looking for during the store invasion. Dillon testified in favor of the bill at a hearing in February, recalling that one of the burglaries took place while his wife was in labor with their baby boy.
The board said performances and classes will cease with the theater’s closure at the end of October.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis theater community was dealt a huge blow Friday after it was announced a popular improv performance space will close next month.
Managing director of Uptown’s HUGE Improv Theater, Sean Dillon, confirmed the news to KARE 11 Friday afternoon. Dillon said performances and classes will cease with the theater’s closure at the end of October. A Facebook post published by the theater chalked up the reasons for the decision as “complex, but they ultimately boil down to money.”
“The Board has concluded that, after a series of expected and unexpected challenges, cash flow just cannot sustain the work HUGE was set out to accomplish,” the post reads.
But while the theater maintains the closure comes amid financial troubles, some members of the community believe the closure is related to the resignation of the theater’s co-founder Butch Roy and artistic director Becky Hauser last month. The resignations came after it was alleged the theater whitewashed casting for an upcoming show. The theater’s co-executive and inclusion director, John Gebretatose, went on to write an open letter, questioning the theater’s commitment to diversity among its performers.
Following the resignations, the board released a statement on its website, saying it was “in the process of developing a plan to ensure we reflect our ideal that improv is for everyone.”
The HUGE Improv Theater Board also denied the rumors in its social media post Friday.
“We want to be emphatically clear: the open letter raising concerns about diversity on HUGE’s stage is not the reason for this closure,” the post said. “HUGE was already in a precarious financial situation, and there simply isn’t a viable way forward.
“Our struggle to find sufficient stable funding in no way diminishes the amazing work that HUGE has produced and supported over the years, and more importantly the diverse and enthusiastic community it has fostered.
“We know work still lies ahead to ensure that improv in the Twin Cities is truly a space for everyone, and we look to our community to continue these vital and challenging conversations.”
Co-founder Jill Bernard, who began improv in 1993, is grateful to have helped take the Minneapolis improv scene to new heights.
“When I started improv in 1993, there were very few women, there were very BIPOC performers, and we’ve sort of changed everything that’s possible for people to really hear and use their own voices on stage,” Bernard said. “And I feel like HUGE was a big part of that.”
The theater said it plans to run its shows through October as planned, as well as its fall term classes. The board encouraged the community to support performers and “participate in the life of the theater to the fullest extent you can.”
“There will be more to share as we move forward, but for now: thank you all for everything you have given to this place, and for always being the beating heart of what makes HUGE HUGE.”
A Shorewood woman died Friday after being hit by a truck while crossing the street.
SHOREWOOD, Minn — A woman died on Friday after being hit by a truck while crossing a highway in Shorewood.
It happened at about 1 p.m., according to Minnesota State Patrol, on Highway 7.
Officials said the 65-year-old woman from Shorewood was walking across the highway at Christmas Lake Road when she was struck by a Ford F150 that was turning left onto Highway 7.
The name of the victim has not yet been made public.
After four years, mounting safety concerns, and a Public Utilities Commission hearing, 100+ wind turbine blades stuck Grand Meadow could finally be on the move.
GRAND MEADOW, Minn. — Wind turbines are a common sight across southern Minnesota, but a massive pile of more than 100+ discarded wind turbine blades isn’t something you see every day.
Unless you live in Grand Meadow.
“The whole town is upset about it,” said Patti Harvey who lives near the lot where the blades have been sitting since 2020. “It’s a real mess.”
“This is a nuisance,” said Mower County Commissioner, Polly Glynn, who also lives in the town, which is about 20 miles south of Rochester.
“I call it a turbine graveyard,” said Grand Meadow City Administrator, James Christian, who has been looking for a way to remove the turbines ever since it was clear that they had overstayed their welcome. The owners thought they’d be here for about three months. This was supposed to be just a temporary lay-down yard.”
NextEra Energy decommissioned the blades from its nearby windfarm in 2020, and paid a start-up called RiverCap to remove them.
“Initially, (RiverCap) was going to recycle them, and crush them down into an aggregate that would then go into concrete,” Christian said. “And then this spinoff company from RiverCap, called Canvus, they were going to turn them into furniture. Outdoor furniture.”
“Everything sounded wonderful, but it just didn’t get done,” said Glynn, who said she spoke to and emailed with the recycling company several times. “But every deadline has come and gone.”
Eventually, Glynn said both companies went out of business and the blades became a growing health and safety issue.
“It’s nasty, just nasty stuff,” Havey said. “It’s dirty and the kids want to play on it and there’s all kinds of critters that live in those things.”
“We’ve had a lot of problems with animals out here,” Christian said. “Raccoons, foxes, and other animals that shouldn’t be in town.”
After yet another deadline came and went in July, Christian stopped playing nice.
“I knocked on every door and called every number I could find until I finally got to the Utilities Commission,” he said.
After looking into the site permit for the wind farm, Christian decided to file a complaint against NextEra Energy.
“In the initial permit application, they said that they were going to have these things taken care of, recycled or put in a proper facility,” he said.
In the PUC hearing about that complaint on Thursday, NextEra Energy representatives said they do not have ownership of the blades, but with the owners out of business and unresponsive the commission ordered NextEra to take action.
“When we do these permits, we expect you to act in good faith and follow your commitments and you have the permit obligation to put them at an appropriate facility,” said commissioner John Tuma. “I find it not appropriate. I find that sticking it in Grand Meadow is not a final resting place.”
NextEra Energy then agreed to get to work.
“Removal must start by Oct. 5 and must be completed by Dec. 15 of this year,” Christian said. “It felt like I was finally being listened to.”
“James (Christian) has really stepped up and tried to get this out,” Glynn said. “I feel pretty good that we’ve got some clout behind it now. Hopefully, it will get done.”
Christian: “I’ll believe it when I see it, but I do have a little more faith than I had yesterday morning.”
Erdahl: “Are they going to throw you a parade if this actually happens?”
Christian: “There was mention yesterday of a parade once the final truck leaves town. Put some banners and ribbons on it.”
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