Man Charged with Scrap-Metal Thefts in Burnsville

A Maplewood man has been charged with stealing items from a Burnsville bakery and from a locked race-car trailer this summer, apparently intending to sell them as scrap metal.

John Manuel Contreras, 23, is charged with possession of stolen property and theft, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, Eagan police stopped a cargo van pulling a trailer full of scrap metal on June 27 and identified the driver as Contreras, who admitted that he didn’t have a driver’s license.

Contreras and his passenger told police that they had scrap metal in the trailer and the van that they had taken from a Dumpster at an air-duct company in Eagan, a business in Burnsville and a McDonald’s restaurant in St. Paul, admitting that they didn’t have permission to take the items.

Police took the van and trailer to a towing facility for further investigation.

The items on the trailer included a large aluminum table used for bakery production and three proof boxes, large aluminum cabinets on wheels that are used to create humidity and cause bakery dough to rise.

Police also found a number of small, heavy pieces of aluminum that had been machined, and pieces of steel and folded sheets of stainless steel that had been stamped. Investigators were unable to determine the source of those items.

Contreras admitted later that the items in both the van and the trailer had been stolen from businesses a few days before police stopped the van.

Burnsville police confirmed in July that someone had broken into a trailer at a bakery at the end of June and taken a bakery table and three proof boxes, valued at about $5,700. The bakery owner identified the table and proof boxes in the trailer as the ones that had been stolen.

Also at the end of June, Burnsville police were alerted that someone had cut into a locked race-car trailer and taken a stereo and aluminum parts which matched the scrap metal found in the cargo van and trailer. Those items were valued between $500 and $1,000.

Contreras is scheduled to make a first appearance on the charges Oct. 31 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.