Posted: 4/21/04
By Barbara Brown
A three-day burglary and car theft spree ended peacefully last week after Chisago and Isanti counties deputies arrested a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy.
Chisago County Investigator Russ Frank said Lars Hottel and a 16-year-old friend started their crime spree on April 12 in Windom, in the southern part of the state.
He said after fleeing from a burglary committed in Windom, where the pair stole a Pontiac, the burglars found themselves driving north to Mille Lacs County.
The cohorts attempted a burglary in Mille Lacs, but were unsuccessful, Frank said.
He said the two drove south and east into Chisago County until about 4 a.m., when they got lost on back roads and ended up crashing the Pontiac into a ditch off Basswood Road.
In need of transportation, the two men went to a residence in Nessel Twp., which was a summer residence for a Twin Cities family.
Hottel and his accomplice broke into the house and set out several items in a line that they could have stolen. However, Frank said, they did not steal anything.
The two broke into the garage of the vacant house and tried unsuccessfully to steal a vehicle, Frank said.
Hottel went to the house next door, which turned out to be a group home for young adults. Apparently, Hottel had been watching the upstairs employee because when she briefly left the upstairs to talk to the downstairs employee, Hottel must have entered the building by going onto the roof and dropping in a window.
When the employee returned, Frank said, she sat down on a couch, but felt someone behind her. When she turned, he said, Hottel was walking out of a medicine closet. The employee watched out the window as Hottel stole a group home van.
The employee told police that Hottel had been armed with at least two guns, but that he did not threaten her while he was in the group home.
Hottel and his accomplice traveled on Packard Street, across the Isanti County line near Grandy. While there, they stole a white Dodge pick-up truck and abandoned the van, Frank said.
He said the pair also stole a Mitsubishi Galant from a different location in Grandy.
Eventually, around 8:30 a.m. on April 14, Isanti County deputies catch up with Hottel in the white pickup, Frank said. The pair got separated in the vehicles.
According to Isanti County officials, the chase continued less than a half-hour through residential and dirt streets. During the chase, Hottel apparently was trying to get rid of evidence because he was throwing stolen items including a chainsaw out the window.
Finally, deputies took Hottel into custody, but they had lost track of his accomplice.
Recovered from the scene of Hottelís arrest was a .45 caliber handgun and evidence that the pair had fired the weapon inside the truck.
Also recovered from the scene was a cellular phone. According to Isanti County officials, while the phone was in police custody, it rang. On the other end of the line was the juvenileís sister saying that the teen was lost and needed Hottel to come pick him up.
After police got off the phone with the sister, the phone rang a second time. It was the teen. He left a message with officers to tell Hottel he needed to be picked up at ATV Salvage in North Branch, where he ended up after the burglary.
Isanti County deputies called Chisago County deputies who then picked up the juvenile.
Hottel appeared before Judge John McBride in Isanti County court on April 16. McBride set bail at $60,000 on three counts possession stolen property, felony motor vehicle use without consent and felony fleeing police in a motor vehicle.
Charges against Hottel in Mille Lacs county include burglary in the second and third degrees.
Charges have yet to be filed in Chisago County, according to the the county attorneyís office.
The juvenile is being held in the Chisago County jail and the investigation is continuing.
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