A shoe and blood spots left at a crime scene led the police to crack theft operations by a six-member burglary ring that repeatedly stole cash from safes at bars in Albert Lea and the surrounding area.

Tuesday, September 18, 2001

A shoe and blood spots left at a crime scene led the police to crack theft operations by a six-member burglary ring that repeatedly stole cash from safes at bars in Albert Lea and the surrounding area.

The Albert Police and County Sheriff’s Office filed charges against Jeffrey John Mauer, 23, Trevor Allen Hovland, 31, David Thomas Neely, 25, Brett Eugene Lunning, 28, Dana Ray Borland, 25, and Jason Jerry Wayne, 25, for a total of 13 burglaries.

According to the complaints, the crime ring broke into Julio’s Bar in Hayward, the Moose Lodge in Albert Lea, Hunter’s Bar in Myrtle and other locations between November last year and June this year, and stole approximately $12,000 of cash from the safes.

The police found a shoe and blood stains beneath a tipped over safe left at the latest crime scene at the Moose Lodge on June 11. It was apparent that the suspects had failed to move the safe from the wall, and had been injured.

According to the Albert Lea police, when investigators made a visit to Mauer on June 13, his right leg had been treated and put in a cast at a hospital in Austin.

In their 13 burglaries, the group allegedly pried back doors open and took safes away. But the safe in the Moose Lodge was too heavy to remove. Mauer allegedly tried to move it using a dolly but failed, according to the police.

The six are each charged with third-degree theft.