By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

One juvenile has been arrested and one is still at large as of last Friday after a series of break-in attempts and burglarizations during the evening hours of Saturday, Sept. 14 around Miller Street and Boardman Avenue in New York Mills, as well as one downtown business.

NY Mills Police Chief, Bobby Berndt, said that businesses receiving property damage included Mills Country Market, NY Mills Car Wash, Legried Community Pool, Dollar General, County Cycle Pit Stop, as well as the Lund Park concessions building.

“The County Cycle building was burglarized and was hit the hardest,” said Berndt. “They’re missing several items from the burglary.”

While each of these properties received varying degrees of damage, not all of them were successfully burglarized. The Lund Park concessions stand and County Cycle were burglarized with several e-bikes missing from the County Cycle shop, two having been recovered so far.

“The businesses are responsible to get the damage amount back to me, but they are still in that process,” said Berndt. “Ultimately, the amount of damage affects some of the charging, but the juveniles are going to be charged with third degree felony burglary and criminal damage to property, possession of stolen property and theft.”

According to Minnesota statutes, juveniles can only be held for 36 hours after arrest. Berndt said that the first arrested suspect had already been released into the public last week and the second would be released in short order after their detainment as well.

“Hopefully, there is more checks and balances put in place to prevent it from happening again,” said Berndt. “The biggest thing that lead to the closure of this case was the amount of surveillance videos that are popping up throughout our community, whether it’s homeowners or businesses.

“If more and more people put up cameras to protect themselves, they’re also protecting others,” continued Berndt. “A byproduct of protecting yourself is also protecting others.”