The home of Dallas Cowboy and former Minnesota Viking Linval Joseph was the latest to be targeted in a series of burglaries in the affluent St. Paul suburb of Sunfish Lake.
The burglary at the veteran defensive tackle’s home was discovered on Monday, according to West St. Paul police, which provides police services in Sunfish Lake.
Three other residential burglaries in Sunfish Lake were reported Sept. 27, Oct. 25 and last Friday, Nov. 15. The properties are on Sunfish Lane and Salem Church Road in the Dakota County suburb, which is home to just over 500 people.
John Johannson, who lives on the same street as Joseph, returned home in October to find his home had been burglarized. The suspects damaged his house and stole valuables, he said.
“It’s a nice, quiet neighborhood and to have someone be successful so frequently is just shocking,” said Johannson, a commercial real estate developer who played professional hockey for the New Jersey Devils in the 1980s and later in Europe. “The police know what they’re doing and they’re going to catch these guys somehow.”
The burglaries share similarities with more than 60 other cases in the Twin Cities metro and others nationally that have targeted professional athletes, according to West St. Paul Police Chief Brian Sturgeon.
Law enforcement agencies have been investigating burglaries at high-end homes since last November in Eagan, Richfield, Minneapolis, Edina, Minnetonka, Fridley, Medina, Minnetrista and Orono. Timberwolves point guard Mike Conley’s home in Medina was burglarized in September.
“We know that they’re using some sophisticated techniques in order to determine” when people at the home are leaving and where exterior cameras are situated on homes, and the burglaries have been the work of more than one person, Sturgeon said Monday. The burglaries have happened when residents aren’t home.
Joseph, 36, played six seasons with the Vikings before his release in 2020. A Cowboys representative said players were off Tuesday and he didn’t have a comment on Joseph’s behalf.
Second-floor entries
Johannson said a common theme seems to be burglars coming through second-floor windows. West St. Paul police Lt. Matt Swenke, who’s in charge of investigations, said many alarm companies will put glass-breakage sensors on first-floor windows, but not on higher levels because they don’t think people will scale buildings.
“Unfortunately, in some of these cases, that’s proving contrary to well-conceived notions,” he said. Still, the best thing people can do if they have an alarm system is make sure it’s turned on, Swenke said.
Sunfish Lake Mayor Dan O’Leary, who has lived in the community since 2006, said because it’s “been such a peaceful city with no crime whatsoever, most of us have not in the past turned on our security systems.” Since the burglaries, O’Leary said he’s made a point of turning on his security system, even if he’s just going to the grocery store.
West St. Paul police had a mobile surveillance camera system visible in Sunfish Lake on Wednesday.
Johannson told fellow Sunfish Lake residents at a recent community meeting that “you might think you have a nice, big heavy safe, but they can cut into it way quicker than you think.” Safes have proven effective in other cases, Swenke said.
O’Leary asked all residents “to be especially vigilant around your property,” he wrote in a message after the third burglary. “Especially the wooded areas since it is believed the burglars are accessing the property from surrounding woods.”
The Sunfish Lake City Council plans to vote on installing Flock Security, which are license-plate readers and cameras, on roads in the city at its Dec. 10 meeting. They’re holding a community meeting beforehand at 6 p.m. at First Calvary Baptist Church, 5495 S. Robert Trail in Inver Grove Heights.
O’Leary urges residents to sign up for e-news on the Sunfish Lake website, which he said is the only way they have to notify residents of emergencies and other important information.
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