Man Charged with Stealing $22,000 Worth of Items from Lakeville Home

An Elmore, MN, man has been charged with burglary after police say he stole items from a Lakeville home at which he had attended a party the day before.

Dorrance Leroi Roberts, 18, is charged with felony second-degree burglary, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

Roberts remained in the Dakota County Jail Monday on a $60,000 bond. At the time of his arrest, he was also wanted on an outstanding car-theft warrant and is facing a probation violation hearing on Tuesday.

According to the criminal complaint, a homeowner in the 9100 block of 247th Street West reported to Lakeville police on July 28 that the home was burglarized sometime between 2 and 5 p.m. that day.

The homeowner told police that when he arrived home, he found a side window broken and a door open on a pole barn adjacent to the house. He also reported that the back door to the garage had been kicked in, and the screen door leading to the basement laundry room had been cut.

Among the items stolen were six flat-screen televisions, a laptop computer, a CD player, a computer monitor, a shotgun, a safety deposit box, a jewelry box and a satellite TV box.

The victim told police that his daughter said she might know who was involved in the burglary. The daughter said Roberts – whom she knew as “Flex” – had attended a pool party the day before, and after he left, he came back to look for a hat he said he had left behind.

While Roberts was at the home looking for his hat, the victim’s daughter reported, she saw him talking on her cell phone.

The victim told police that he has four separate video surveillance cameras set up on his property, and video showed Roberts approaching the pole barn with another suspect, then walking to the house, carrying some of the items reported stolen.

When Roberts came to the home to look for his hat, he was driving a black SUV, the complaint says. One of the surveillance videos showed what appeared to be the same black SUV pulling into the driveway a few minutes after the victim and his family left.

The stolen items were valued at approximately $22,000, according to the complaint.

Roberts’ criminal record includes two previous burglary convictions and one theft conviction, two of them when he was a juvenile.