Star Tribune
5 men lassoed Roseville bank ATM, freed it with pickup
Four Texans partnered with a Twin Cities cohort to lasso a Roseville bank’s ATM filled with thousands of dollars in cash and yank it from its mooring with a pickup truck, according to charges filed late Wednesday.
Police say the FBI is looking into Tuesday’s ultimately failed heist because it bears a striking resemblance to crimes committed elsewhere in the U.S. by the Texas-based “Hook and Chain Gang.”
This is not the first rodeo for one of the defendants in this case. Christopher E. Merchant, 23, of Houston, pleaded guilty to being among several others who targeted two bank ATMs in Tampa, Fla., in July 2021 under nearly identical circumstances.
Merchant was sentenced in federal court to 18 months in prison, given nine months’ credit for time served after his arrest and then was released once his term was up. He was on court-ordered supervised release at the time of the ATM assault in Roseville.
Along with Merchant, charged in Ramsey County District Court with theft and property damage were fellow Houstonians Larry D. Gill, 23; Kenneth D. Brown, 23; Leonard D. Williams, 25; and Dekorius Durham, 22, of St. Paul.
“It should be noted,” the criminal complaints against all five defendants read, “that there have been more than 50 thefts matching this method of operation since 2021.”
The complaint also pointed out that police believe Brown and Williams were in an SUV together staking out a credit union’s ATM in St. Louis Park less than an hour before opting to go after the ATM outside the Great Southern Bank in Roseville near County Road B2 and N. Fairview Avenue.
Bank video surveillance captured Merchant taking a crowbar to the ATM before he and Williams connected it to chains attached to the nearly 3-ton pickup, the charges read. Gill joined in trying to lift the ATM, but it fell over and never left bank property, the charges continued.
According to Wednesday’s complaints:
ATM alarms went off about 4 a.m. outside the bank in the 1800 block of County Road B2. Police arrived just as a pickup truck was leaving the bank’s parking lot with Brown driving.
The officer activated his squad’s emergency lights in an effort to pull over the pickup, but Brown drove over the median and a large rock while trying to evade capture. He fled from the still-moving pickup, which soon crashed into a car and a yellow bus.
After a “lengthy foot chase,” Brown was arrested, and police soon determined that the pickup had been stolen two days earlier.
Back at the bank was its heavily damaged ATM machine lying in the parking lot and still holding more than $5,000 in cash.
Thanks to the seizure of a hotel key by police from one of Brown’s pockets, officers went to the nearby Key Inn. The clerk said Brown’s Texas identification was used to make a reservation, and four other men had just entered that room.
Police went to the room and ordered the men to exit with their hands up. The men closed and locked the door in response, then continued ignoring police demands that they surrender. A few hours later, police entered the room through a window and arrested Merchant, Gill, Durham and Williams.
The five appeared in court Thursday morning and were granted public defenders. All remain jailed as of Thursday afternoon in lieu of posting bail. Merchant’s was set at $15,000, while bail amounts for the others were set at $5,000.
Williams is due back in court on Dec. 28, while Merchant, Gill and Durham have Jan. 2 hearings, and Brown has a Jan. 9 court date.
Star Tribune
Here’s how fast elite runners are
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
Star Tribune
Liberty Classical Academy sues May Township after expansion plans put on hold
The school said in its lawsuit that both Hugo and May Township consider the land rural residential zoning, and that the codes identify a school as a conditional use. Hugo officials have generally supported the LCA plan, granting a building permit in 2022 that allowed LCA to invest $2.1 million into the former Withrow school for renovations.
The school said in its lawsuit that the existing septic system is failing and needs to be replaced, regardless of expansion plans.
The school said it notified neighbors of the property in 2022 and again in 2023 about its land purchase. About 50 residents in total attended those meetings, and just two expressed concerns over the issues of traffic and lights, according to the suit. The school met with the May Township board in May of 2023, and minutes from that meeting show that the board had no concerns beyond lighting at the time, according to the suit. The board asked if the school could use “down lighting” for its athletic fields and the school said it would.
In June, Hugo City Council approved a conditional use permit for the school, but the May Township board voted to extend the decision deadline to early August.
The suit says it was at a subsequent meeting in July that May Town Board Chairman John Pazlar objected to the plan for the first time, saying “the main concern, based on public comment, is to keep Town of May rural.”
The school said its plans for the May Township portion of its property had been submitted eight months prior to the July meeting, and that its plans met requirements of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Star Tribune
Is Minnesota’s most competitive House seat a swing district or is it trending blue?
DFL Rep. Angie Craig rode the 2018 blue wave to victory and has fended off close challenges for the last three terms by appealing to a broad swath of swing voters in the Second Congressional District.
All of her races have been close, but her tightest race so far was during the 2020 presidential election when she beat GOP Tyler Kistner by just over two points. Running in a presidential election year once again will put Craig’s mainstream appeal to the test and could determine whether the Second Congressional District remains one of the last swing seats in the state.
A majority of district voters have picked the winning presidential candidate each cycle since 2000. Some people describe them as independents, but Joe Atkins, a Dakota County commissioner from Inver Grove Heights, prefers “zig zaggers.”
“They work their way down the ballot and vote for people depending on whether they show up on bread and butter issues” like public safety, transportation and the economy, said Atkins, a former House DFLer. “It’s more about the candidate than the partisan leaning. It’s trended more blue, in recent years, but a Republican can definitely win in CD2.”
Craig will face off against GOP political newcomer Joe Teirab in November. He’s a former assistant federal prosecutor and Marine who hopes to turn out Republicans and convince those “zig zaggers” to give the Republican candidate a fresh look. Both candidates have considerable campaign war chests and backing from national groups.
But would a fourth-term win for Craig indicate the district is trending blue? The answer is not straightforward. Political observers think the district will remain a swing seat for the foreseeable future.
“I think we could see that over the past few elections it’s trending blue. It’s just still so close to 50/50,” said State Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley. “It’s not that long ago that we had a Republican member of Congress and some really hard-fought elections.”
Craig became only the second Democrat to hold the seat since the 1940s when she beat former Rep. Jason Lewis in 2018 by over five points in a rematch. And the race between Craig and Kistner was decided by 9,580 votes and by a little over 17,000 votes in their 2022 rematch.