3 Charged in Connection with Attempted 2009 Eagan Copper Theft

Three Twin Cities residents have been charged in connection with an attempted copper theft in late 2009 that left 7,000 Eagan residents without power for two and a half hours and electrocuted one of the defendants.

David Paul Stachowiak, 34, of Blaine, Brad Jules Krekelberg, 33, of St. Paul, and Alanna Lindsey Magnuson, 30, of St. Paul, are each charged with three felony counts: damage or theft to energy transmission or telecommunications equipment and first-degree criminal damage to property, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, and possession of burglary tools, which has a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Krekelberg was seriously injured when he came in contact with a transmission line carrying 69,000 volts of electricity on the evening of the burglary, authorities say.

According to the criminal complaints against the three, Eagan police were called to an address on Taconite Trail just after 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 23, 2009, when someone reported a man on fire. Just before the call, power at the Eagan police station was interrupted for 10 to 15 seconds.

While they were en route to the area, police noted that the traffic lights on Pilot Knob Road weren’t working, and there were no street lights or lights in any homes in the area.

When they arrived, police found Stachowiak, wearing severely burned clothes and emitting a strong chemical burn smell, with red burn marks along his legs. Stachowiak complained of extreme pain and was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Officers tracked Stachowiak’s footprints in the snow to a Dakota Electric substation, where they found a severely burned jacket and glove. The barbed wire atop the chain-link fence around the substation had been cut so that someone could climb over, the complaint says.

Officers said there were two sets of footprints around the perimeter of the fence, and evidence that one person had gone over the fence and inside the substation.

Dakota Electric crews let officers into the substation, where they found “numerous” areas where heavy copper cables had been cut away from transformers and other equipment, according to the complaint.

“Officers could see where one of the individuals apparently had made contact and completed a circuit, which launched him a significant distance, where he landed in the snow, on fire,” the complaint says.

Residents in the area told police that they heard a loud bang just before all the lights in the neighborhood went off.

When police initially arrived on the scene, they asked Stachowiak where he had parked his car. He told officers that he’d been dropped off by his girlfriend after they had an argument, and that he had “just been electrocuted, so he didn’t know why or where he was at the time.”

Officers found Magnuson and Krekelberg standing beside a Lincoln Town Car parked across the street from the substation. They noted that Krekelberg had frozen snow around the lower area of one leg, which appeared to have frozen solid from being outside for a long time. He also had snow caked on his right buttock and his jacket, making it appear that he had fallen in the snow or had been standing in snow up to his waist, the complaint says.

Police separately questioned the couple, who said they were on their way to Mystic Lake Casino when they saw a huge explosion and wanted to find out what was going on. Both denied knowing Stachowiak and continued to insist that they were on their way to a casino.

In early January, Eagan investigators interviewed employees of Great Western Metal Recycling in St. Paul, showing them photos of the three defendants. One of the employees pointed to a picture of Stachowiak and asked, “Is that the guy that blew himself up in Eagan last weekend?”

The employee also pointed to Magnuson’s picture and said, “Well, that makes sense. That’s why she hasn’t been in recently.”

The employees provided investigators with documentation showing that Magnuson had sold 3,611 pounds of copper to the company and Stachowiak 518 pounds since 2008.

Last Aug. 21, Eagan investigators again interviewed Magnuson, who admitted that Stachowiak and Krekelberg went over the substation fence on the night of the explosion so they could steal copper.

She said Stachowiak sometimes went out to scout locations during the day, and that she sometimes went with him, according to the complaint. She said the two men worked at getting into the substation for about 20 minutes before the explosion on Dec. 23.

“Magnuson reported that Stachowiak was launched 15 feet in the air, hit the ground, then ran 40 yards or so to the corner of the fence, climbed about 10 feet and then fell back to the ground, still on fire,” the complaint says.

Magnuson told police that the three had been stealing copper “for some time,” according to the complaint, and that they had gone to a location in Inver Grove Heights two weeks before the Eagan incident and stole copper there.

If Stachowiak went in by himself, it sometimes took him an hour to get all the copper out, Magnuson told police. She told investigators that he got over barbed wire by putting a jacket over it and then climbing over.

Magnuson also admitted that she sells all the stolen copper because Stachowiak didn’t have identification. She said Stachowiak previously worked for a utility company in Savage, but was fired in 2008, and that they had stolen $10,000 worth of spool copper from that company; she said Stachowiak had hidden keys before he was fired, which gave them access to the lot.

Two days after that theft, Magnuson told police, she sold 505 pounds of copper, and the next day Stachowiak sold 518 pounds.

Dakota Electric’s initial estimate of damage to the substation after the December 2009 incident was $64,362. Great River Energy, which supplies electricity directly to the substation, reported damages of $14,000.

Krekelberg has a lengthy Minnesota criminal history dating back to 1997, including convictions for burglary, receiving stolen property, check forgery and drug possession.

Stachowiak and Magnuson also have criminal records, though they are not as extensive as Krekelberg's.