CrazyPictures

Teens charged with bungled burglary

The pair allegedly stole thousands in cash before bungling the getaway by dropping a bag containing $5,400 cash and leaving key evidence at the scene.

Ryan D. Swanson, 17, of 1610 N. Third St., and Derek A. Berndt, 19, of Milwaukee, were charged Friday with burglary and possession of burglary tools after allegedly robbing the Uni-Mart at 2117 Indiana Ave.

They face 16 years in prison and fines of up to $35,000.

Today is Swanson's 18th birthday.

The night began when Swanson, in his waning hours as a juvenile, called Berndt to ask if he wanted "to do some crazy (stuff)," according to the criminal complaint. By this, Swanson meant breaking into a gas station, Berndt told police.

The pair's first interaction with police was around 1 a.m. when officer Shannon McKay of the Sheboygan Police Department ticketed Swanson for driving with a suspended license, his fifth such violation this year and second in 15 days.

In Swanson's van, which had been parked at the Uni-Mart and was pulled over five blocks away, McKay found a duffel bag containing a small sledgehammer with a rag wrapped around the head, according to the complaint.

Swanson was released around 2 a.m. to his mother, who took him back to the van. Swanson then drove back to his Third Street home, according to Deputy Police Chief Robert Wojs.

The teenagers told police they then exchanged the van for bicycles and pedaled back to the Uni-Mart, stashing the bikes in nearby Moose Park.

Around 2 a.m., the bicycle bandits hurled the rag-wrapped hammer through the Uni-Mart's glass front door, according to the criminal complaint.

The owner of the gas station, Maninder Kaur, told police through an interpreter that the burglars stole two cash bags containing $31,000 in cash and checks from gas station sales, a yellow diaper bag containing $5,000 in lottery receipts and the owner's purse, according to the complaint.

Kaur said all the money was sitting on shelves under the counter.

Swanson and Berndt told police they gathered the money and ran back to their getaway bikes, according to the complaint.

When a deliveryman saw the shattered door and called police around 4:30 a.m., McKay was one of the responding officers. He recognized something the burglars had left behind: a small sledgehammer with a rag wrapped around the head.

"Some of this, let's face it, we just get lucky," Wojs said.

"(McKay) could have been out on another traffic stop, he could have been busy with another complaint, he could have been any number of places where he wasn't sent back there," Wojs said. "Had he not been sent back there — he was the only one that saw that hammer — we'd have never known where to look."

As it was, police did know where to look, because Swanson had told McKay during the earlier traffic stop that he sometimes lived with a friend in the Town of Franklin, according to the complaint.

Swanson's van was parked outside a Franklin house, and in the basement officers found several bags of cash, Kaur's purse — with credit cards and checkbooks still inside — and an underground cistern with a fresh footprint near it, according to authorities.

"Officer, can I crawl out? It's very uncomfortable in here," Swanson said from inside the cistern, according to the complaint.

Police found $3,400 hidden in the basement and throughout the house, and the teenagers said that was all the money they had taken, according to the complaint.

In search for the remaining thousands of dollars, police retraced the boys' escape route — from the Uni-Mart to the bicycles — around 9 a.m. and found the bag with $5,400 cash inside sitting on the ground where it had fallen hours earlier.

Police are still investigating the remaining $26,000 the owner said is missing.

"Either the reported value is mistakenly high or there's a whole lot more that they've got and they didn't tell us," Wojs said. "They both can't be right."

As of Friday afternoon, Swanson and Berndt were in Sheboygan County jail, unable to make $300 bond.

posted by trasman @ 5:36 PM