Two Charged with Burglarizing SLP Home

Two men have been charged with breaking into a St. Louis Park home in search of food and cigarettes.

Christopher James Hendren, 28, of Shakopee, and William Travis Tolson, 30, who has no permanent address, are charged with breaking into a home in the 3200 block of Brunswick Avenue last Thursday.

Each is charged with felony first-degree burglary, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine.

Both men remain in the Hennepin County Jail on separate $60,000 bonds. Omnibus hearings in their cases are scheduled for April 11 in Hennepin County District Court.

According to the criminal complaint, compiled by St. Louis Park Police Officer Siar Nadem, police responded to a report of suspicious activity outside a home just before 8:30 a.m. March 8.

A girl who lives in the house called 911 and reported that two men were knocking on her front door, then sitting in a car in the driveway. As officers were en route to the home, the girl called again and reported that she heard something breaking at the rear of the house and that she was going to a neighbor’s home, according to the complaint.

When police arrived, they set up a perimeter in the front and back of the house. Shortly after their arrival, officers saw Hendren walk out the home’s front door, drinking from a soft drink can, the complaint says.

After a “brief struggle,” Hendren was arrested, and police found Tolson hiding behind a dryer in the home’s basement, according to the complaint.

Hendren told police that he lived in the home for nine months in 2001, and that he and Tolson broke in to find food and cigarettes, according to Nadem’s account. He told police that they got into the house by removing a board from the back door with a screwdriver.

The home’s owner told police that she knew Hendren through her ex-husband, and confirmed that he spent some time living in the house.