Man Arrested for Allegedly Burglarizing Businesses, Using Computers to Look at Porn, Facebook

A Prior Lake man on probation for credit-card fraud last fall in Lakeville has been charged with breaking into several Burnsville businesses, stealing credit cards and other items and trying to use some of the credit cards at stores in Burnsville Center.   

Garrett Devon Berry, 22, is charged with felony third-degree burglary, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. 

Berry remains in the Dakota County Jail on a $40,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled June 19 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to a business on Southcross Drive on May 21 on a report of a burglary.

The building’s owner told police that someone had broken into the Healing Connection Therapy Center and had stolen a projector, a DVD/VHS player, a laptop computer and a silk scarf. Police found shoeprints on a table and a Phillips screwdriver, which they speculated had been used to remove the projector from a ceiling bracket.

Officers also found a business card for the Lily Wellness Center, located in the same business complex. When they checked that firm, they discovered that its exterior door had been kicked open, and the business owner told them that checks and corporate credit cards were missing.

Just before 2 p.m. the same day, police were called to Burnsville Center on a report of a man attempting to use a stolen credit card. The man was identified as Berry, who had been asked to leave the shopping mall on “multiple occasions,” according to the complaint.

Police arrested Berry, who was wearing a T-shirt and a beaded necklace that had been stolen from one of the businesses earlier in the day, the complaint charges. They also recovered three stolen credit cards.

Berry admitted to police that he had burglarized the businesses, telling them that he also used computers at both locations to look at Facebook and porn sites, according to the complaint. He told police he had hidden some of the stolen items underneath some trees, the complaint says.

Berry was convicted of a felony in November after he used a stolen credit-card number to order a pizza by phone in Lakeville. He was also convicted of providing a false name to a peace officer in the Lakeville incident.

When police arrested him, he identified himself as a man with the initials JLR – described in state records as 6-foot-2 and weighing 315 pounds. According to the criminal complaint in that case, Berry is 5-foot-4 and weighs about 140 pounds.