Roseville Police Arrest Scrap Metal Scrounging Suspects in Stolen Car

Roseville Police Sgt. Matt Marshall said most of the crimes the department deals with revolve around theft.

But when one of his officers arrested three people driving around in a stolen Volkswagen sedan on March 18, it was a haul a bit out of the ordinary.

“We recover stolen vehicles quite often, but most of the time they’re already abandoned,” Marshall said. “Usually if a vehicle’s been stolen almost a year, which was the case, they’ve either been chopped or totaled, and you’ve either got a total loss or just a shell of a car, a carcass.”

Officer Jon Riley spotted the Volkswagen while on patrol near County Road B and Dale Street. The sedan was zigzagging, U-turning and cutting through lots, and Riley decided to pull it over.

The three people in the car were unable to furnish proof of insurance and the rear passenger, a Columbia Heights resident, had three warrants, including a felony theft warrant.

After calling for backup, Riley searched the car and found coolant pumps from industrial refrigeration, pliers and screwdrivers.

“It’s all your implements that burglars normally carry,” Marshall said.

Police also found fans wound with copper, an expensive metal that is often stolen and sold at a profit.

“Some drug paraphernalia associated with methamphetamine was also found in the car,” Marshall said. “Typically what happens is they go out and commit these crimes, take whatever copper or metal they can to a salvage yard and then take that money to support their narcotics habits.”

The car’s driver, a St. Paul resident, and both passengers—the Columbia Heights resident and a St. Louis Park resident who claimed she owned the car—were arrested and booked for receiving stolen property and possession of theft tools.

The car’s vehicle identification number was scraped off with a grinder and soldered over, and a second VIN on the car door was also missing. The car was eventually identified as missing out of Ramsey, Minnesota, when police directed city mechanics to search for a tertiary ID number that the National Insurance Crime Bureau had alerted them to.

Roseville Det. Mark Ganley said charges are expected to be filed against the trio by the end of the week.