According to this Dakota County Criminal Complaint, a man found the person who broke into his wife’s car at Buck Hill and stole her $500 purse and wallet containing $400 in gift cards and cash after doing his own detective work at Burnsville Center Mall nearby.
From the complaint:
On January 13, 2012 at approximately 6:03 p.m., Burnsville police officers were dispatched to the Buck Hill ski area in the city of Burnsville, Dakota County, Minnesota, on the report of a theft from vehicle. The victim, D.A.A., told officers that someone had broken out the window on her vehicle and removed a Coach purse, Coach wallet, and miscellaneous other items which belonged to her. The purse also contained $200 cash and a $200 Macy’s gift card, and the purse and wallet themselves were valued at over $500.
[...]
While in route to Burnsville Police Department, the victim and her husband stopped at the Burnsville Center to look into some of the charges since it was on the way to the police station. D.A.A.’s husband stopped at the T-Mobile store where they knew that D.A.A.’s credit card had been declined for a charge of over $600. The clerk at the T-Mobile gave a detailed description of the two females associated with that declined transaction. D.A.A.’s husband then saw a woman outside the store matching the description of one of the two women who had been involved in the declined transaction. He also noticed that she was carrying a purse of the same style as his wife’s stolen purse. D.A.A.’s husband then approached the woman, later identified as Jennifer Elizabeth Martin, DOB: 12-10-75, hereinafter referred to as defendant, and asked to see her purse and explained how his wife’s purse was recently stolen.
[...]
When he asked her about the Macy’s bag and merchandise she had with her, as his wife’s card was fraudulently used at Macey’s and he thought the circumstances were suspicious. The defendant told D.A.A.’s husband that she bought the items at Macy’s with cash. The victim’s husband then took a distinctive hat that the defendant was wearing to the T-Mobile store and the clerk identified it as the same hat she was wearing during the transaction. At about this time, Burnsville security saw the conversation between D.A.A.’s husband and defendant and stopped to see if anything was happening. Defendant then changed her story and told D.A.A.’s husband that her friend has thrown away his wife’s credit cards and belongings in a garbage can in the food court at the mall. D.A.A.’s husband then called police and Burnsville Center security held defendant until police arrived.
The defendant has a long criminal record including five arrests in Dakota County since 10/10/2010 (10/10/2010 (TXT), 11/17/2010, 12/11/2010, 3/8/2011, 1/13/2012) two of which have resulted in felony charges and one which gave her a three month taxpayer funded vacation in Dakota County Jail which was supposed to last up through 6/14/2011.
If someone stole your belongings would you take it upon yourself to do detective work on your own or would you leave it up to the police? If you did your own detective work would you confront the person yourself or would you call the police and wait for them to question the individual instead? What do you think about someone who has been arrested on criminal charges four separate times which led to a jail sentence one time and felony charges another? Are you surprised this person continues to re-offend in the area where they continually get caught? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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January 24th, 2012 at 8:06 am
I am guessing that when her parents are having dinner at the country club and someone asks about their children, they probably forget to bring up Jenny. Or they say she is “finding her way.”
That is great that the guy decided to track her down. It is not as if the police have the resources to do what he did, though he is fortunate she was not a more dangerous person than it seems like she was in this instance.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:14 am
Yeah I’d snoop around if the opportunity presented itself. Good job by that guy.
Being a guy, I just don’t understand the concept of a purse and wallet for $500 but I suppose if hell ever froze over or I won the lotto I would buy them for my gal. If they were stolen I’d be very interested in recovering em along with any plastic nuke bombs the wallet contained.
I just got a new wallet recently, 10 bucks mwahahaha take that Prada!!
January 24th, 2012 at 8:18 am
This story is impressive to me for two reasons:
1. That the husband and wife team were able to find these people, but I realize doing this is a lot easier when the perpetrators go directly to the nearest mall and apparently hangout after making several purchases.
2. A woman with a $500 purse with $400 (of value) in it would leave it in plain view in a car, yet have a credit limit of less than $600?
January 24th, 2012 at 8:18 am
I think its pretty impressive. I also think it could have been pretty dangerous, and he is lucky it did not turn out different, but I applaud him for taking care of it.
Its too bad our police dont have the time or resources to do this same type of investigation.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:22 am
#1 – Women (or men) shouldn’t be leaving a purse in the car where someone will see it. Especially a purse valued at over $400. That is essentially asking for someone to steal it.
#2 – Criminals that get caught, re-offend, and get caught again are typically not your average rocket scientist. I’m neither surprised that this woman has re-offended… again. I bet she’ll do so a few more times even.
#3 – Props to the credit card company that made the information available to the card holder such they found out invalid charges were being attempted, and the location they were occurring.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:23 am
Twoboot has really come full circle.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:27 am
twoboot,
Since it was clear the victims were in communication with their credit card company, it may be that the card was shut down before the card was tried at T-Mobile. Even if a card is shut down, the CC company will see the authorization attempt.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:15 am
Lefty,
You’re probably right, they just noted the $600 to incorrectly charge her for Financial Transaction Card Fraud in the amount of less than $250.
These criminal complaints are hard to interpret when the pending charges aren’t consistent with the report above. I’m just glad that these people got their stuff back, no violence erupted, and the defendant gets her day in court….. again.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:25 am
Credit card limits have nothing to do with it. I imagine their limit may be quite high. My credit card companies will always call me even when I make any purchase that seems out of my usual pattern, i.e. hardware store, gas, Target, Walmart, a restaurant. When I charge anything over a few hundreddollars, they call me to confirm I did actually buy that item. Several times on a Saturday I have even bought cars with a credit card in order to take it that day. The banks are closed but the dealer can confirm my credit in a few minutes with the card company. I never made a lot of money but I always have had good credit and very high limits as a result. I have found goods stolen from me in pawn shops and gone to the Apple Valley PD who were very cooperative. The person was caught, tried and did some time. He also became an upstanding citizen after his time to think in the county jail.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:28 am
A colleague of mine – his truck was broken into in Minneapolis – asked the police to take fingerprints. He was laughed at.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:43 am
To answer Bill’s questions, would I do the “detective work”? Sure if the opportunity presented. Would I confront the person? Yes. But here’s where my story would take a different turn. I would absolutely haul off and blast that chick right in the face, earning her a trip to a reconstructive surgeon and me a trip up the river on an assault charge praying that my squeaky clean record would minimize the sentence. (Well, in my fantasy world anyway).
Chad, I agree, twoboot continues to inch slowly towards a coherent point. But as others have pointed out, the credit limit thought was a few fries short of a full Happy Meal. Anyone with any hint of knowledge can think of dozens of reasons why this would happen.
All in all, an uplifting story to read. Generally, the best we can all do (as Zapiens points out) is hope that the misery of these peoples’ existence will punish them where the police and courts can’t.
And, women, stop leaving your fucking purses in your cars.
January 24th, 2012 at 9:46 am
Congrats to Marty on comment #100!
January 24th, 2012 at 11:23 am
This probably won’t help my case, but I was under the assumption that the T-mobile store is less than 500 ft away from Macy’s where the victims credit card was used for a $250 purchase. Which means 1 of 3 things probably happened:
1.Credit Card Company was called while the defendant walked from Macy’s to the T Mobile and picked out their intended items.
2.The victim has a low limit on their credit card. ( “low” is subjective.)
3.The victim carries a very high balance. (could be due to multiple reasons, “high” is also subjective.)
Unless #1 happened, the victim probably got their expensive purse back due to poor money management.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:26 am
Twoboot,
4. The credit card company declined the transaction due to it being outside of the normal purchasing habits of the customer.
—
#4 happens to me frequently, especially when I travel outside of my “home area”. Whenever I travel I have to call the credit card company and give them a fucking itinerary of where I’ll be and when so they don’t decline my card along the way. It’s a huge pain in the ass as all it does is saves THEM money. People are not liable for charges made on stolen cards.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:40 am
You are right, I assumed they were local which I shouldn’t have because they were at Buck Hill (tons of non-locals go there). On the other hand doesn’t everyone end up paying $600 for a cellular phone then end up getting $550 back in rebates in 6 months?
January 24th, 2012 at 11:46 am
Oy vey. Here we go again. Twoboot, read this sentence and then re-read it over and over again until it makes sense/makes you feel like your #2 above is a stupid comment:
“A ‘credit card’ being denied has nothing to do with the individual’s financial health.”
It could be a debit card and the officer/victim used the wrong nomenclature.
It could be a corporate travel card. I have cards in my wallet that have my name on them, but are tied to my company. They have restrictions on what can be purchased, where the purchases can be made, and amounts.
I also have “credit cards” in my wallet with my name on them that are actually my health care spending accounts. These too have restrictions. I cannot make a purchase at Macy’s or T-Mobile with them.
I have debit cards tied to accounts that are fixed expenses (my mortgage, my church contribution, my car payment, my other fixed bills). They have a fixed deposit and carry exactly the amount of money necessary for the automatic payment from these companies to clear. They would be denied for spending outside of that pattern because I’ve set it up that way. They don’t have a “high balance” or “low credit limit”. They are set up to have a balance and available funds that closely match (I have the deposit set up at a marginally high percentage to cover errors).
Whether I carry them in a $0.50 or $500 wallet does not reflect anything. Your comment #2 makes no sense. You are making a stupid generalization/stereotype.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Interesting, I read the police report, curious why Jennifer Martin was not charged with breaking into the car and stealing the purse. Someone else get charged with the theft?
RECEIVING STOLEN PROPERTY
FINANCIAL TRANSACTION CARD FRAUD
IDENTITY THEFT
Yes I would follow up as others have stated above the police do not have the resources to investigate this crime to my personal level of satisfaction. Would I have approached her, no, would have followed her ass and dialed 911.
I use to engage suspects of crimes in the past or get involved in public domestic situations but those were the days before people had cell phones.
Today there are too many people who would not think twice about pulling a gun or knife on you for engaging them. That is what the police are there for.
Many years ago there were items stolen from my garage and for the weeks immediately following I kept my eye on Craigs List, would go into the local pawn shops, and put up searches on Ebay for the items to see if they showed up. Nothing ever showed up through my personal investigations. That is what insurance is for.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
I don’t consider the police to be worth using for petty theft due to so many departments having resource constraints that leaves them unable to devote much time to that.
I read a story a year or two ago about a Minneapolis guy whose wife had her purse snatched from her. He used a mobile phone locator to track down the home, where the thief denied taking anything. The guy parked outside the home and waited and sure enough, the thief eventually walked out of the house, down the street a bit, and threw the phone in a snowbank. The police were then called and were able to recover the purse.
What I found hilarious was the police scolded the guy in an interview, saying they recommend that nobody take that action. However, they know they wouldn’t go that far themselves. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, the police were called as soon as the theft happened and they didn’t do anything about it.
Technically, the police are right. Taking the law into your own hands can end badly and they can’t be liable for that by recommending that people do that.
But if what you want to recover means that much to you, by all means, I say do it. For me, even if the value itself were smaller, there’s a feeling of being violated after something like that has been stolen from you and I would want a sense of justice.
So yeah, I’d go after a thief.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Yeah technology is great. I can log into a site and tell exactly where my cell phone, ipad, and laptop are, send messages to it to display and wipe all data from it at the click of the mouse. Same thing with my vehicle with Onstar. With a call from the police with a police report # they can shut off the fuel supply to the vehicle while the car is running. I suspect that as the technology becomes cheaper it will be an option for more and more products, including $500 purses. Hey Coach, there is an awesome product for you. For an extra $100 you can have a GPS put in the thing and for free you can go onto their site “Where is my Coach Purse?” and find it. If you can afford the $500 purse what is an extra $100, just remeber to change the batteries in the GPS unit.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:48 pm
MSPD,
Shouldn’t a police report be accurate?
Do you have any “credit cards” that you could charge $250 at Macy’s but NOT at T-Mobile?
“A ‘credit card’ being denied has nothing to do with the individual’s financial health.” Where did you get this statement from?
The typical American has $8000 in credit card debt, yet like MSPD have multiple debit cards that they call “credit cards” that carry the exact amount of their fixed expenses………
Yep, I am definitely the one making illogical assumptions.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Twoboot,
I wasn’t talking about them not being local, I was talking about them making a $600 phone purchase at T-mobile. It’s very possible that for the last 15 years they’ve been making a monthly debit on the card used at T-mobile for Verizon. I’m sure the fraud detection algorithms used by the CC company would flag that transaction if that were the case. This could go any number of ways but you get the idea.
January 24th, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Great, now the local TV stations are picking up the story.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
They should mention they heard it here first.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
I still think twoboot’s #2 is one possibility. I have a card with a $500 limit that I use for small business travel expenses like lunches and dinners when travling for my job. My company reimburses me a week or so later and I pay the card with no interest.
If this criminal would have used my exact card in the manner in which she did at Burnsville Mall, that is exactly what would have happened to her regardless of any credit card flags (which I doubt they have on a $500 credit limit).
January 24th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
I’d urge people, especially the victim, to write a short impact statement and submit it. I know here in Mpls they’re soliciting them for neighborhood crime and they are read during the sentencing project. Supposedly it has a large impact on the judge, and also many of the defendants, for them to truly understand the damage that was inflicted by smashing a car window. But it’s not just the victims that write these statements. It could be neighbors, people who go to Buck Hill, etc.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
If you are telling a cop that your wallet was stolen, would you say it had “cash, a credit card, a pre-paid Mastercard, a Mastercard branded corporate travel card, a Visa branded health savings account expense card, a Visa branded Flexible Spending Account card, and a Mastercard branded Dental Plan Expense card”? Answer is no. A person would say “my wallet and credit cards were stolen” then list the card name and card numbers. The nomenclature of “credit card” vs. debit card, stored value card, health account spending card, etc. is irrelevant to the theft report it has no bearing on its “accuracy”.
And, yes, I have cards that could be used for a $250 purchase at Macy’s then declined at T-Mobile. I explained that giving multiple examples. If there is $260 balance in one of my checking accounts/debit cards (which is a Mastercard branded card that is no different from a “credit card” except that it comes out of my checking account instead of a line of revolving debt), then that scenario would happen.
Millions of Americans carry stored value cards and credit cards with restrictions on type, location, and amount of purchases. (Incidentally, I work for a company that offers these).
And, go ahead and type out more meaningless statistics. I fully expect you to grasp at logical straws after your comments on here. I’ll debunk yet another of your clueless assertions: The typical American might have $8,000 in credit card debt, but that may be 50% of their annual income or .00003% of their annual income. That is a completely meaningless statistic as it pertains to a person’s financial health/ability to carry a $500 purse.
By the way, you are also blind to the fact that MANY people use budgeting strategies like separating their discretionary spending from fixed income/expenses. That’s not an anomaly in my wallet — that’s actuall a sound financial strategy that millions of people employ (I wouldn’t expect a simpleton like you to relate).
The bottom line is that you made a stupid assumption (again) in your comment number 2. No amount of arguing is going to make it, or you, sound any more intelligent.
January 24th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
My work laptop was stolen from my home by a friend of my brother’s some years ago, when I was about 25, when he had a party there. We figured out who had done it by process of elimination, enlisted one of my bro’s more thuggish friends to go with us, and went to the thief’s home. The thief was a meth head, and had a meth head buddy there with him. Despite various pressuring tactics, he denied the theft. I told him I would report him to the police. He didn’t flinch. Then I told him I would report him to his mom. Suddenly the laptop was produced! Voila!: D
I probably would not do that now. But maybe I would. If I was pissed off enough…
January 24th, 2012 at 1:45 pm
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/01/24/charges-woman-husband-track-down-purse-thief/
January 24th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Should we also stop wearing short skirts?
My car was stolen two summers ago. I had an insurance device that tracked speed, distance, and time of day driven. I logged in and printed the most recent trip detail within an hour of learning of the theft. Based on the stats, I worked from a map and narrowed down the neighborhood (figuring that the car could only have gotten up to 70 on a highway, and the on-ramp appeared to be 1 mile away). We then drove up and down the streets in the resulting area for several weekends before giving up.
My car was recovered three months later, but not in the area we searched. So, my detectiving skills are not all that great it seems.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:01 pm
No, I fully endorse short skirts.
January 24th, 2012 at 11:56 pm
Hi Everyone. I’m “The Husband”.
1. Between Macy’s and T-Mobile we cancelled the card. Thanks for your concern about our financial well being, Twoboot.
2. People in glass houses. Of course we shouldn’t have left the purse. But my wife showed up a little late for a ski race that lasts about 25 seconds. I don’t know ANYONE who hasn’t left something of value in their car, or left their car running unattended. My wife felt stupid enough without the entire blogosphere raining hypocritical BS down on her.
3. I know snarky speculation is part of the fun here, and some of your comments make me chuckle, but if you want to know what really happened, you can ask me.
January 25th, 2012 at 12:35 am
4. Boom-roasted!
January 25th, 2012 at 5:35 am
See comment 7 people.
lefty wins again.
Don’t hate the game.
January 25th, 2012 at 6:25 am
Troy–welcome to LL! What was the “distinctive hat” business all about? Also, thanks for posting.
January 25th, 2012 at 8:48 am
How to do Buck Hill in 25 seconds.
1. Pick up pass in morning and affix to jacket.
2. Get skis waxed up good for a quick run
3. Get dressed at home, including wearing ski boots
4. Have hubby drive to meet me at the bottom of the hill
5. Throw purse in the back seat of hubby’s car for convenience.
6. Take helicopter to top of hill for my race
7. Make sure hubby knows to park the car to watch me in action
8. Jump out of helcopter, skis on from 10 feet (cool beans).
9. Land at precise moment the starter’s gate opens
10. Miss first gate, give up and fly to the exit.
11. Meet hubby back at car
12. Fuck, where did my purse go?
January 25th, 2012 at 9:14 am
lefty, skip the helicopter and just walk to the top. It’ll take 35 seconds.
January 25th, 2012 at 9:18 am
That is why you need the copter. It is the key to doing Buck Hill in 25 seconds or less. You simply have to remove virtually every other variable from the equation in order to achieve this.
January 25th, 2012 at 9:57 am
Whit is at 666 comments, so any supersticious Christians can quit reading LL for a few days.
January 25th, 2012 at 9:58 am
If that’s the reason they quit reading LL then there’s some crazy fucking shit going on ;-)
January 25th, 2012 at 10:10 am
Duh, loser. Anyone whose $250 purchase causes their “credit card” to be declined can’t possibly afford a helicopter.
Signed,
Twoboot
Troy, I totally admit this is a pet peeve. My wife does this (although she “hides it”). I cringe every time and fully expect to one day return to our vehicle and discover a smashed window. It wasn’t a shot at your wife specifically.
Besides, hopefully you got the message that we pretty much think you kick ass for doing this. As far as I’m concerned I hope you consider hanging out here in the LL comments section. Welcome.
January 25th, 2012 at 10:49 am
MSPD and I agree it was pretty kick ass (probably not for the same reasons).
I just operate assuming that it went all too smoothly and there had to be some downside other than having a broken window, *losing several hours of your life and having a compromised sense of safety.
*If you don’t enjoy being a local hero.
January 25th, 2012 at 11:23 am
Lefty,
25 seconds is how long it takes a racer to go from the top to the bottom of Buck Hill. We were spectators at a High School Ski Race, not cartoonish Richie Rich douche bags.
#34
When I asked everyone at T_Mobile to describe the people who were denied, they said she was wearing a black baseball hat with a giant “Ed Hardy-like” patch.
January 25th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Troy,
I don’t really think you own a helicopter. What I did is called parody. I don’t do a lot of those, so you should feel pretty special. I mean, even just a little more special than you already do what with being a hero and all.
lefty
January 25th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Troy, just ignore lefty, most everyone else already does.
January 25th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
my wife often leaves her purse in the car, but when she does, she makes me put it in the trunk and under a blanket or something. Never in open view. why does she do this? because when she was in high school her car was broken into and her purse stolen. She worked at Ponderosa and the car was parked int he Burnsville center parking lot! That was 1985. Only took once for her to learn, and yeah, it sucks.
p.s. I had to google what an ed hardy hat was… I’m feeling old. I guess John Deere hats are out?
January 25th, 2012 at 4:30 pm
Troy,
Just so you know, and so there is no doubt, lefty is our resident Looney Tunes character… ;-)
January 25th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Call me Egghead Jr.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:58 am
For me, one of the components of our little ordeal does hold some actual civic relevance. It’s not why my wife “left her purse in plain view” (she didn’t), or why she left it in the car (she did), or why I would buy my wife a $500 purse when our credit card only has a $600 limit (Birthday from the family, that’s not the limit).
BUT THIS (and I hope everyone is still reading):
The Burnsville PD was professional and thorough. But understaffed. We called the PD from Buck Hill. No officer was available so we were asked to go the Police Department HQ. Instead we went to the mall, confronted the thief and remained until the police arrived, perhaps 45 minutes later.
Again, by no means should ANYONE see my comments or story as an indictment of our PDs professionalism or dedication, they were great. But instead I ask myself why there are so few of them. Rhetorically of course, because I’m neither stupid nor apolitical. But as a simple statement, we need enough officers to respond to the demands of the community.
So finally, THANK YOU to the Police, and you guys need more help.
January 26th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Amen.
The consolation is, although we don’t have enough officers on the streets, we DO have Mayor that won a Prestigious National Award for building a wonderful arts center without ANY new taxes!! (Of course were it not such a massive money suck, some of the existing taxes would have prevented/reversed cuts in police and fire, but there’s no Prestigious National Award for that.)
January 26th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Oh, MSPD… but the BPAC didn’t lose as much money this year as last! We’re of course going to ignore the fact that the city put up another $25,000 and then got companies they gave gifts to (PawnAmerica, Pepsi, VenuWorks (which is really just tax dollars anyway)) to pony up another $25,000.
Citizens can walk across the street to Subway and they can see a shitty art gallery but they can’t have officers respond to a felony theft.
January 26th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
I agree with the question of why so few. I had to make a 10pm run down to Faribault this past Friday. As I entered the city limits of Faribault I saw more police cars in the span of a couple miles, than I have seen all month in Lakeville and Apple Valley. It reminded me of all the cops I found cruising around Cedar Rapids Iowa. Either our crime is way low, or our priorities lie somewhere else. We need to buy and renovate a building for a new liquor store, or buy a bunch of ipads for our school kids. Crime, that won’t happen to me.
January 26th, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Well, to be fair, the iPads are a separate funding issue entirely.
January 26th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Apparently, they’ve made drastic cuts to their copy editing budget as well. Check out this doozie they just posted on their Facebook!
January 26th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
That’s Priceess.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:04 pm
The City just tweeted an update to that and admitted the mistake. Proof-positive that they monitor Lazy Lightning all the time.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:09 pm
If they did it wasn’t while they were working.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Why would a city worker be at work at 8 PM?
You are in their heads 24/7!
January 26th, 2012 at 9:01 pm
LOL #53 maybe they outsource all the web stuff to India? lol
January 27th, 2012 at 9:57 am
Actually someone on their Facebook page quickly notified them of the error.