If you have a tip concerning a crime, call the St. Joseph Police Department at 320-363-8250 or Tri-County Crime Stoppers at 320-255-1301 or access its tip site at tricountycrimestoppers.org. Crime Stoppers offers rewards up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for a crime.
June 7
11:24 a.m. Threat. CR 75 and Eighth Avenue NE. Officer spoke with the caller who said there was a man in his 50s with a gray shirt with the Invista logo on it, black khakis, a ball cap and was driving an Infiniti vehicle with Texas plates. The caller said the suspect drove up to him while he was standing on the shoulder and said he wanted to beat him up behind the bushes. The caller said the suspect was fired up when he drove up to him and could have seen him actually going through with it. The officer could not locate the suspect. Officers later received a message that the suspect of this incident called back and gave a phone number to speak with him. Suspect said he was coming from St. John’s University and was trying to get to Kay’s Kitchen. A construction lady told him he would have to go further up the road to get there. He went further up and found the original caller where both parties exchanged words. Suspect advised he never threatened to beat up the caller but told him “you can kiss my ass.”
8:19 p.m. Fraud. Ninth Avenue SE. Officer was dispatched to a fraud call in regards to a man being scammed out of approximately $1,000. Officer spoke with him by phone and he said he was playing solitaire on his computer when a message came up to call 304-301-3733 because he was hacked. He called the number and spoke with a Jack Daniels who is said to work at Microsoft with a badge number #214897, who directed the man to a Sophie. Sophie had him go to the St. Cloud Financial Credit Union in Sartell and instructed him to take out $6,480. Sophie had him go to the bitcoin ATM machine at the Cashwise in Waite Park and deposit the money into an account into the machine. After he deposited $1,000, he was having troubles and started to think it was a scam. He then contacted law enforcement. The hackers told him if he went to law enforcement, child pornography would be downloaded onto his account and not to tell his bank. He advised the officer, after contacting law enforcement, they tried contacting him with the phone numbers of 606-391-1246 and 838-201-5447, which all phone numbers given all go to a TextNow account. The man was instructed to contact his bank to have his accounts changed and to contact the bitcoin machine company to try and stop the transaction.
June 10
5:15 p.m. Accident. 20th Avenue SE. Officer was dispatched for a two-vehicle crash on CR 75 at 20th Avenue SE with unknown injuries. Officer arrived on scene and no one was hurt and both parties refused medical attention. Both vehicles were eastbound CR 75. Vehicle one was stopped at a stop light. Vehicle two had a vehicle in front of him that was stopping quickly for the stop light. Vehicle two swerved out of the way and hit vehicle one. See Minnesota crash report for full details.
June 11
2:58 p.m. Suspicious activity. Wobegon Trail. Officer was dispatched to a suspicious-activity complaint on the Wobegon Trail just east of CR 3. Woman reported she found several kids’ bikes on or beside the trail. She reported she called out and nobody responded to her. Upon arrival, children came out of the woods and started biking east toward St. Joseph. The kids just went on an adventure and everything was OK.
June 16
10:31 a.m. Fire. CR 75 and CR 133. Officer was dispatched to a grass fire on CR 75 west of CR 133 in the north ditch. Arrived on scene and observed about a 50-yard stretch of the ditch on fire. Officer attempted to stomp it out but it was too windy. The fire kept re-igniting. St. Joseph Fire Department arrived on scene and put the fire out.
10:01 p.m. Hit and run. Minnesota Street W. and College Avenue. While on patrol, officer saw vehicle pulled to the right of College Avenue S. just past Minnesota Street W. The woman driver stopped officer and advised she was on with dispatch because she was in a crash and the other vehicle left westbound on Minnesota Street. She said the vehicle was an older model Saturn dark blue in color. The vehicle was already beat up looking and the driver had his seat reclined. The Saturn was traveling westbound on Minnesota Street and ran the stop sign at College Avenue. The vehicle will have fresh passenger-side damage.
