Woman Facing Drug Charges after Burnsville Home Burglary

A Hastings woman has been charged with drug possession and possession of burglary tools after police say she used saws to break into a Burnsville home last January, with her children waiting outside in a car.

Jennifer Mae Seelig, 28, faces two felony counts of drug possession, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She is also charged with felony possession of burglary tools, which has a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine, and a gross misdemeanor charge of child endangerment, which has a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, police were alerted in January that Seelig was suspected of breaking into a Burnsville home, and the homeowners thought she might try to break in again.  

The homeowner said Seelig was the girlfriend of the homeowner’s son, who was at the time in a treatment center.

On Jan. 24, an officer spotted a car matching the description of Seelig’s vehicle parked in the home’s driveway, still running, with its trunk open as though items were being loaded into it, according to the complaint.

The officer observed the car for 20 minutes, then approached the car and saw Seelig’s three children in the car’s back seat and a dog in the front. As he approached, Seelig walked toward the car speaking on a cell phone; the officer asked her to hang up, and she told him she was talking to her daughter in the car, who had called to tell her that police were there.

Police found that the service entry door on the home’s garage had been damaged, and found a circular saw and a hand saw lying in the snow near the door. Seelig had dust on her jacket, in her hair and on her pants, the complaint says.

When the homeowner arrived, he told police that the saw marks on the door were new, and that the saws were not his.

Seelig was arrested, and police did an inventory of the items in her car. An officer looked under a large bag of clothing and found a laptop computer case containing a bag of marijuana, the complaint says.

Police also found a purse inside the car that held three packages of crystal methamphetamine, and three “rather large” bags of marijuana elsewhere in the car, according to the complaint. The total weight of the marijuana was 44.77 grams.

Seelig is scheduled to make a first appearance on the charges Nov. 28 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.