Eagan Man Arrested for Home Burglary in Plymouth

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A 21-year-old Eagan man already convicted of felony burglary, theft and receiving stolen property has been charged in Hennepin County with breaking into a Plymouth home while its owners were asleep on the morning after Christmas.

Timothy Paul Afanasiev, 21, is charged with first-degree burglary in the Dec. 26 break-in. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. 

Plymouth police were called to a home in the 4300 block of Harbor Lane at 3 a.m. Dec. 26 to investigate a break-in, according to the criminal complaint, signed by Plymouth Police Detective Jon Goldenman.

The caller said her husband and the burglar were fighting in the laundry room, but the suspect had broken free and fled from the home’s attached garage.

When they arrived, officers searched for the suspect, who revealed his whereabouts when a branch in a neighbor’s back yard broke. He was arrested and identified as Afanasiev.

The woman who called police said she was awakened by the sounds of movement in her garage, and she asked her husband to check on the source of the noise.

The man said he found Afanasiev standing in the laundry room, which can be entered through the garage, and tried to detain him until police arrived. The two men wrestled briefly before Afanasiev escaped.

The man identified Afanasiev as the intruder, telling police that he recognized his face and clothing and a distinctive red mark on his shoe.

Police found a number of electronic items, including iPods and a laptop computer, stashed beside the victims’ garage.

Afanasiev’s criminal record includes separate felony convictions in 2011 for second-degree burglary in Dakota County and theft of property in Hennepin County. He was convicted in 2012 in Scott County of receiving stolen property and fifth-degree drug possession.  

Afanasiev remains in the Hennepin County Jail on a $60,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Jan. 17 in Hennepin County District Court.