Minneapolis Man Charged With Burglarizing Plymouth Home

A Minneapolis man has been charged with breaking into a Plymouth home while the residents were asleep and stealing electronics equipment and personal items.

Lawrence Michael Johnson, 20, is charged with two felonies: first-degree burglary, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $35,000 fine, and theft, which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Johnson is being held in the Hennepin County Jail on an $80,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled July 2 in Hennepin County District Court.

According to the criminal complaint, signed by Plymouth Police Officer Jeff Dorfsman, a Plymouth resident called police just after 6 a.m. April 1 to report a burglary in progress.

The homeowners told police that they were asleep in their bedroom when someone opened the bedroom door. The woman told police that she could tell it wasn’t one of their children, so she began to yell.

The woman told police that she heard the person standing in the bedroom doorway – whom she described as a heavyset black man – say, “Go, go, go – we gotta get out of here,” which led her to believe that there were at least two people in the house.

The woman said she quickly rounded up her children and kept them in the bedroom with her and her husband until police showed up.

When officers arrived, they went through the home with the residents and determined that the burglars had taken a 52-inch flat-screen television valued at more than $1,000, a Nintendo Wii, an XBox gaming system, a digital camera, a cell phone, a watch, a Coach wallet and three laptop computers and computer bags.

Later in the day, Plymouth police saw a vehicle traveling through the city, and when the driver made eye contact with an officer, he looked startled and immediately turned to the passengers in the vehicle, according to the complaint. The officer checked the car’s license plate and learned that it had been reported stolen.

The car was stopped and its occupants were taken into custody. At the time of the arrests, police spotted a 50-inch television and a digital camera in the back seat of the car.

Johnson, who was in the car, told police that he had bought the TV earlier in the day and had stolen the camera from the same person from whom he purchased the TV, according to the complaint.

Investigators found fingerprints in the burglarized home and sent them to the crime lab for analysis. A palm print taken from a computer monitor in the house matched Johnson’s.