2 Arrested in Eagan After String of Car, Garage Burglaries

Two men have been charged with burglarizing more than a dozen vehicles and garages in Eagan last week and telling police they rifled through the cars because they were looking for cash for cab fare.

Timothy Paul Afanasiev, 20, of Eagan and Dmitriy Antolyevich Gorlov, 21, of Minnetrista each face two felony charges: second-degree burglary and theft, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. 

Afanasiev is also charged with felony possession of burglary tools, which has a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Afanasiev remained in the Dakota County Jail Wednesday on a $50,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled for Sept. 12 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

Gorlov is free on bond and also has an omnibus hearing scheduled for Sept. 12 in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaints, Eagan police were called to the 2100 block of Warrick Court on Aug. 15 after a resident reported seeing a suspicious male in a neighbor’s car and confronting him.

The caller told police that when she confronted the man, he ran away. She described the suspect to police and told them that she had last seen him in a wooded area near Slater Road and Oak Cliff Drive.

An officer began searching through back yards in the area and discovered Afanasiev standing in a back yard on Oak Cliff Drive, the complaint says. When Afanasiev saw the officer, he began running toward Wildwood Street, but the officer was able to chase him down.

The witness identified Afasaniev as the man she had seen going through her neighbor’s car, according to the complaint.

The woman told police that her vehicle had been burglarized as well as her neighbor’s. As they were talking, another man approached and reported that items valued at $4,100 – including a golf bag, golf clubs, a range finder and a men’s watch – had been taken from his car.

In subsequent days, 10 other Eagan residents reported that items had been stolen from their cars in the same neighborhood, according to the complaint. Police estimate that the value of the stolen items “far exceeds” $5,000.

Afanasiev admitted to police that he had stolen property from cars in the area, and told them he was assisted in the burglaries by Gorlov, according to the complaint. Afanasiev said they had come to his Eagan home and intended to drive his car to Osseo, but when they arrived, they found that his car was in the garage.

Afanasiev said he didn’t want to wake up his parents by taking the car from the garage, so the two decided to go through vehicles in the neighborhood to find money to pay cab fare. He said he showed Gorlov a hollowed-out tree where they could store the stolen items and return later to retrieve them, the complaint says. Afanasiev told police he also stored stolen items in a backpack.

Police found Gorlov asleep on the ground near James Court, surrounded by some of the stolen property, including the golf bag and clubs. When officers awakened him, he appeared confused, and told police that he had taken between six and eight tablets of Klonopin, an anti-seizure medication.

He also said he hadn’t done anything wrong and had been sitting in the park waiting for Afanasiev. However, police later recovered most of the stolen property from the park where Gorlov was found sleeping.

They also found Afanasiev’s backpack, which they said contained bottles of cognac, screwdrivers, a window punch, gloves and a flashlight.

When police searched Gorlov, they found 28 Tramadol pills, a narcotic-like pain reliever used to treat moderate to severe pain. Deputies at the Dakota County Jail later found nine Clonazepam pills – another anti-seizure medication – on Gorlov.