A Minnesota man was apprehended after driving a stolen U-Haul from Minnesota to Prescott.
Mark Anthony Smith Jr., 38, West St. Paul, Minn., was ordered to pay $1,000 cash bond in Pierce County …
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A Minnesota man was apprehended after driving a stolen U-Haul from Minnesota to Prescott.
Mark Anthony Smith Jr., 38, West St. Paul, Minn., was ordered to pay $1,000 cash bond in Pierce County Circuit Court June 6 on felony receiving stolen property > $10,000 (repeater), felony take and drive vehicle without consent (repeater) and possess drug paraphernalia (repeater) charges. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and/or fines up to $25,000.
According to the complaint:
At 11:34 a.m. June 2, Inver Grove Heights (Minn.) police were dispatched to Acorn Mini Storage (5000 Babcock Trail) for a vehicle theft. According to an employee, two U-Haul rental vehicles were missing from the parking lot and sometime between 4 p.m. May 24 and 10 a.m. May 27, the rental car key drop box had been broken into and six U-Haul truck keys were stolen. Among the keys stolen were keys for a U-Haul cargo van and a U-Haul 15-foot box truck. The cargo van, worth $40,000, went missing from the parking lot sometime between 7 a.m. Jue 1 and 10 a.m. June 2. The employee said the truck was stolen because the renters had returned the keys to the drop box.
At 10:29 a.m. June 3, Prescott police were notified that the stolen U-Haul truck had just entered the city while traveling eastbound on Highway 10 from Minnesota. They found the vehicle in the 800 block of North Hope Street. They kept an eye on the vehicle until they saw Smith, who was alone, driving it away. They pulled him over in the 900 block of North Canton Street.
Smith was handcuffed and placed in a squad. Inside the U-Haul, officers found a set of keys with white numbers on them, along with a small black bag that contained syringes (one of which contained methamphetamine), multiple sets of keys, two Dodge key fobs and lighters. Smith told police he liked to collect keys.
Minnesota court records show that Smith was convicted of felony drugs – third degree in Chisago County on Nov. 24, 2020.
Smith is scheduled to appear at a status conference in Pierce County Circuit Court at 2 p.m. July 29.
