USPCA Region 12

USPCA Region 12 Patrol Case of the 4th Quarter, 2009

Region 12 Patrol Case of the 4^th Quarter 2009Officer

Stender and k-9 Harley of the Minneapolis Police Department

On 11-30-09 at approximately 0734 hours Officer Stender was working off duty at Target Field when he heard Officer Lukes and K-9 Chase answer a call of a Burglary in Progress at the Jaguar/Landrover Dealership. At approximately 0815 hours Officer Lukes requested that Sgt. May respond to his location because his K-9 Chase had just fallen off the roof of the business. Officer Stender responded to the scene and arrived to K-9 Chase as Officer Lukes did. It was apparent that Chase was in serious condition and would not survive the injuries from the fall.

Officer Stender spoke with other officers who were at the scene of the Burglary. They believed that at least two suspects were still in the business. At approximately 0820 hours Officer Stender and K-9 Harley began a search of the very large, three story business. After K-9 announcements were given Harley was sent into the building to search. At approximately 0907 hours Harley was searching the office area on the first floor when he walked by a closed door and gave a head snap. Harley began barking at the door and trying to get in. As Officer Stender got close to the door he could hear a female voice coming from inside the room. Harley was was restrained and the female was taken into custody. After questioning the female it was learned there was at least one more suspect in the building and that they had been jumping floors to avoid detection by the K-9. Additional officer were then brought into the building to secure the stairwells and prevent any future movements of the suspect(s).

Officer Stender and Harley began a complete search of the three story one city block building. At 0950 hours K-9 Harley sniffed a locked HVAC room door located on the roof and immediately started to bark and growl at the door. Officer Stender opened the door and gave several K-9 warnings. When he got no response he sent Harley into the completely dark room. Harley began searching the room and jumped over some duct work. Officer Stender heard someone yelling and looked and found Harley behind duct work had jumped up approximately four feet to apprehend a suspect in the leg. Harley was pulling the suspect to the ground off the duct work. A second suspect was also located hiding in the HVAC room and taken into custody. All three suspects were arrested and charged with Business Burglary.

Officer Stender was advised after the building search that Officer Lukes K-9 partner Chase died as a result from the injuries he received during the fall looking for the three Burglary suspects.

USPCA Region 12 Narcotics Case of the 4th Quarter, 2009

Region 12 Narcotics Case of the 4^th Quarter 2009Detective Mark Meyer and K-9 of the MSP Airport Police Department

On 12-07-09 at 1940 hours Detective Meyer went to the MSP Airport Fed-Ex Parcel sorting station to watch outbound parcels. When working outbound parcels the goal is to find parcels containing cash that are involved with the shipment of narcotics. At 2040 hours , he observed a suspicious , well taped package, tracking number 8625 5001 0205, traveling on the conveyor belt. The package had a hand written air bill and was being shipped to an address in Brownsville, TX.(A source city and state for narcotics) Through his past experience Detective Meyer has found parcels containing illicit narcotics from Brownsville, TX. He took the parcel from the conveyor belt and observed it was sent from a known drug area in the city of Minneapolis. He noticed several misspelled words on the air bill and that the city of Brownsville was missing the “e” at the end. The package weighed 7 pounds and being sent Fed-Ex Priority Overnight. Based on his 12 years of experience of working parcel interdiction he knows that this shipping is very expensive. Drug couriers use the Air Service because the illicit items will be in the system a shorter time. Fed-Ex informed Detective Meyer that the sender paid $136.00 cash to ship the item.Detective Meyer took the parcel and placed it by 30-35 other existing packages in the rear of a delivery truck. K-9 Brio was brought into the area and gave the command to “Seek Dope.” Brio began sniffing most of the other boxes before the suspect package. When Brio sniffed the suspect package she sat giving her indication for the odor of narcotics emitting from it. Brio did not indicate on the other parcels. Detective Meyer took the package and brought it back to the Police Department. A search warrant was obtained. Detective Meyer opened up the package and found a child’s toy stuffed horse inside. A hard object could be felt inside the horse’s belly. Detective Meyer cut the horse open and pulled two, heavily wrapped bundles of cash out. The total amount of currency seized was $29,600. Detectives are still working the case but the sender or recipient has not called to make a claim on the property.