Burnsville Man Allegedly Burglarizes Home—Steals Dog, Pocket Watch

A Burnsville man has been charged with breaking into a home, stealing a dog and a pocket watch and smashing a woman’s phone when she tried to call police to report the break-in.

Lance Joseph Weingartz, 32, is charged with second-degree burglary, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, and interference with an emergency call, a gross misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine. 

Weingartz remains in the Dakota County Jail without bail. A hearing to determine his competency to stand trial is scheduled for Aug. 27 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to a Burnsville home just after 11 p.m. June 17 on a report of a home burglary.

Officers spoke to the daughter of the homeowners, who said she was housesitting for her vacationing parents. She said she had been asleep when she heard a loud bang near the front door and heard someone come into the house.

The woman told police that she went to the home’s front hallway and found Weingartz standing in the foyer, which was covered with glass from a broken window.

The woman asked Weingartz – whom she knew – what he was doing, and he told her he had come to collect “his two possessions,” according to the complaint. The woman told police that Weingartz had argued several weeks earlier with her father, who told Weingartz he was no longer welcome in the house.

The woman’s father disabled a keypad on the garage door to keep Weingartz from getting into the house, she said.

The woman told Weingartz she was going to call police, and began to dial 911. Weingartz advanced toward her threateningly, with his fist balled up, then grabbed the phone out of her hand and threw it to the ground, causing the batteries to fall out, according to the complaint.

Weingartz then left the home, taking with him a dog and a pocket watch, the complaint says.