Police Arrest 5 Alleged Garage Burglars

Police may be one step closer to solving a rash of garage burglaries .

Friday afternoon, the Minneapolis Police Department announced in a written statement that they had arrested or charged an additional five people in the 47 garage burglaries that hit the Fifth Precinct between July 16 and July 30. The burglaries seemed to principally target high-end bicycles.

had been arrested in Uptown-area garage burglaries earlier this month. Two of those men, Ernest Lee Baugh and Calvin Jenkins, have since been charged—Baugh in a laundry room burglary on the 2600 block of Garfield Avenue South and Jenkins in a garage burglary on the 2400 block of Aldrich Avenue South.

At the time of their arrests, police spokesperson Sgt. Steven McCarty told Patch that investigators were looking at the possibility that the three were part of a burglary-and-fencing ring.

Three of the five new arrests were arrested in connection with burglaries or attempted burglaries in Southwest Minneapolis.

Two were arrested after officers responding to a burglary report found them in a garage on the 4900 block of Stevens Avenue South. The pair did not have permission to be in the garage and officers booked the 21-year old into the Hennepin County Jail for burglary. He has since been released after prosecutors were unable to bring charges within the 48-hour holding period.

"The officers and investigators at the Fifth Precinct have been working tirelessly to analyze evidence and develop suspect information that will lead to the arrests and convictions of these parties," read the Minneapolis Police Department statement, which was unsigned. "We are happy to report in the past few weeks that nine adults and a juvenile have either been identified (investigation on-going), arrested, or charged in regard to burglary."

According to police reports of the burglary incidents, thieves left little evidence in many recent break-ins.

Police offer the following tips for residents to prevent garage burglaries: 

• Always lock your overhead and service doors even if you are only working in the yard
• Consider upgrading the lock on the service door to a deadbolt.
• Never leave your garage door opener in your vehicle.  It is a key for entry.
• Always record serial numbers of bicycles, electronics or anything else that may have them.  If you are unable to locate the number at the time of report, you can call Property Crimes at 612-673-5715 to report the numbers at a later time.