Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing Car from Cedar Grove Area in Eagan

An Eagan man is in jail for stealing a car from the 3900 block of Cedar Grove Parkway in Eagan.

Kevin Michael Yarusso, 37, pleaded guilty to theft and financial transaction card fraud, both felonies. A misdemeanor charge of obstructing the legal process was dismissed.

He was sentenced on Tuesday to 50 days in Dakota County Jail with credit for 26 days served and five years of probation.

According to the complaint, on Nov. 6 a resident, identified as D.C., parked his car in front of a building on Cedar Grove Parkway while he worked on the building. The doors were unlocked and the keys were in the ignition of the car, which belonged to his girlfriend. When he returned to the vehicle about 40 minutes later, it was gone. His cellphone, which was stored in the car, was also gone. The vehicle, a 2002 red Kia Spectra, was reported stolen. 

On Nov. 7, D.C.'s girlfriend, who was tracking his cellphone, gave police a phone number that had recently been called using D.C.'s phone. The phone was registered to J.H. Police contacted J.H., who told them that while he did not recognize the phone number, he was sure it was Yarusso who called him, according to the complaint. 

St. Paul police recovered the stolen vehicle on Nov. 20. Inside the vehicle were two wallets and other items. The owner of one of the wallets told police his wallet was stolen from a vehicle parked at the same location where the car was stolen, the complaint states. The total amount of fraudulent credit card charges for which police recovered surveillance video is $336.03.

In the video, Yarusso is wearing "the same black hooded jacket, gray sweatshirt with white lettering, black knit cap and blue jeans," according to the complaint. In some videos police observed him getting into a red Kia with the same defining characteristics as the stolen vehicle.

Eagan police officers arrested Yarusso on Dec. 16 after he reportedly refused to comply with the orders of the search warrant to provide his DNA sample.

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