Wall of shame thieves caught

ST. PAUL

Three men allegedly involved in the theft of 20 mounted animal heads and other items from the Department of Natural Resources were charged with felonies Thursday.

One of the men called another from the Washington County Jail, where he was being held on an unrelated charge of stealing a tomato and giving a false name to police, a criminal complaint said.

The conversation was recorded.

Timothy Heidenreich told Terry Cotton to empty out a van where the animal mounts, as well as outboard motors, power tools and computers, were stashed, the complaint said.

"It's like Christmas in there," Heidenreich allegedly said, estimating the value of the items in the van was at least $15,000. "Clean that (expletive) out."

The mounted animals were part of a "Wall of Shame" exhibit that the DNR took around the state to educate the public about poachers.

Heidenreich, 39, was charged with third-degree burglary. Cotton, 37, and the third man, Shane James Rylander, 40, were charged with possession of stolen property.

Criminal complaints filed Thursday in Ramsey County District Court give additional details:

The DNR called St. Paul police Jan. 10 after discovering that its storage building at 1200 Warner Road had been burglarized over the weekend.

Someone had gotten through the locked gates and stolen about $40,000 worth of property, including boat motors, power tools, chain saws, Dell desktop computers and the mounted heads of deer, fish and other animals.

Police found that Heiden-reich's boots matched prints found in the snow at the burglary site.

They also got information from an informant that a person named "Tim" had broken into the DNR building and stolen things; the informant said the items were at 702 Conway St. in St. Paul, where Heidenreich's girlfriend lives.

Cotton lives in the upper unit of the house.

Another informant told police that he had seen power tools and boat motors in the back yard of 702 Conway and that he believed they had been stolen from the DNR.

A Masterlock key found on Heidenreich when he was arrested matched the lock to the DNR main gate; it had been stolen from the building, the complaints said.

When police set up surveillance at the Conway Street house Jan. 13, they saw two men loading power tools from the back yard into a van.

One of the men was Rylander.

Rylander, of St. Paul, said he had bought stolen goods from Cotton on more than one occasion. He told police he went to Cotton's house on Conway Street and bought several power tools. He said he knew they were stolen, but not that they were stolen from the DNR.

Rylander apologized in his interview with police, saying he knew he shouldn't be buying stolen goods.

Executing search warrants for the house, police found five outboard motors, all stolen from the DNR. In the upper unit of the house were 20 deer mounts, a walleye mount, a turkey feather mount and a bear mount.

Cotton told police that Heidenreich told him he'd made a big score of tools, boat motors and mounts. Heidenreich told Cotton he was going to keep the bear mount.

Heidenreich is being held at the prison in St. Cloud.

The other two men are scheduled to appear in court March 7.

Another man arrested in the theft, Will Hague of White Bear Lake, has not been charged.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.