Published September 03, 2009 10:50 pm - 

Suspects didn't think anything fleet of police cars when they pulled in for a bite to eat

Deputies: Please pass pilferers
Cops catch burglars at coffee break time

By Dan Nienaber 
Free Press Staff Writer 

MANKATO —

Two deputies who went to Happy Chef for a coffee break during a busy night of investigating burglaries got the added treat of having their suspects served up on a silver platter.

The Blue Earth County sheriff’s deputies likely needed some down time after responding to three residential burglaries that took place in a span of 90 minutes Wednesday night. All of the incidents took place within five miles of each other, but the residents lived in three different townships.

Investigators suspected the same individuals were responsible for all of the burglaries. Each of the residences were broken into in the same manner and similar items had been stolen.

When a final tally was compiled, items worth about $10,000 had been taken. The stolen goods included laptop computers, other electronics and jewelry.

At about 10:14 p.m. county dispatchers learned the crooks the deputies were looking for might have moved on to other counties. Le Sueur County authorities reported they were looking for a black Chevy pickup that had been involved in a burglary there.

They were asking law enforcement officers in the area to stop the vehicle, which contained three men and a woman, and hold the occupants for questioning.

The two Blue Earth County deputies, and several other deputies and police officers from the area, were taking their coffee break when the Le Sueur County report came through. As one of the deputies was jotting the information down, another officer noticed a truck matching the description pulling into the Happy Chef parking lot, Capt. Rich Murry of the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

The crew of cops — Murry estimates a half dozen at minimum — then went outside and determined, via license plate number, that the pickup was the one they were looking for.

Although items that had been stolen that night from homes in both Blue Earth County and Le Sueur County were still in the pickup, the three men and one woman inside apparently weren’t concerned about pulling up to a restaurant with a row of squad cars outside.

“It’s fair to say there was a good showing of law enforcement when they pulled into the parking lot,” Murry said.

Further investigation revealed the group were suspects in a theft at Minneopa State Park last week and a burglary in St. Clair Tuesday.

The four people arrested were all Mankato residents. They were: Randal Charles Burger Jr., 20; Zachary Donald Hanel, 20; Scott Allan Abbe, 19; and Mariah Skye Harrabi, 18, the report said.

It was a good thing the deputies took a break when they did, Murry added. Not just because their suspects fell into their laps, but because the bust also led to a busy night of follow-up work after the break.

“It’s an easy beginning to the case, but there’s a whole lot of work that goes into taking the reports,” Murry said. “It’s great that it ended the way it did, but they were busy afterwards.

“Actually, it shows those coffee breaks can be pretty productive, too.”