MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 27-year-old Circle Pines man is accused of stealing equipment from a karaoke host and possessing it at his home after the owner got hurt trying to get it back ,according to charges filed Thursday in Anoka County Court.
Dustin Richard Gilsrud was charged with one count of simple robbery and one count of theft in connection with the April 12 incident.
According to a complaint, Coon Rapids Police were called at 1:21 a.m. to the Short Stop Bar and Grill on the 400 block of Northdale Boulevard Northwest on a report of a vehicle theft. When authorities arrived, a woman told police she was working as a karaoke host at the bar that night and finished between 12:45 a.m. and 1:15 a.m. She put all her equipment in her van in the bar parking lot and went back inside to gather personal belongings.
About 15 minutes later, the woman said she saw a suspicious looking man walking away from her van, and when she got to her vehicle all of her equipment was gone, the complaint states. The vehicle next to her started to leave the parking lot, and she noticed all her equipment inside it. She ran alongside the vehicle and tried to open a back door. After a struggle with the suspect, later identified as Gilsrud, the woman fell to the ground and was hurt, the complaint states.
Authorities said the man responsible for the theft was in the bar that night and that a bar employee knew the suspect. Police executed a search warrant on the suspect’s house the next day and found all of the stolen karaoke equipment inside his garage. It was valued at more than $2,800.
When interviewed by police, Gilsrud admitted to stealing the equipment but denied using force against the victim to leave the parking lot with the stolen property.
If convicted, Gilsrud faces up to 15 years in prison and $30,000 in fines.
