Plymouth Woman Involved In Foiled Burglary in Stillwater Area

The Xcel employee who told detectives he thought he was going to be shot.

When the meter reader arrived at a home in the 13700 block of 47th Street Court just after 11 a.m., he told Washington County deputies that he saw a blue Ford Explorer in the driveway.

He then got out of his vehicle to read the meter when he saw a man run across the front of the house and then disappear around the side of the house.

As he approached the meter, the man came around the side of the house, walked directly toward him with a bag in one hand and a semi-automatic handgun in the other, pointed it at his midsection and said, “I’ve just been robbed.”

The meter reader told detectives he asked the man what his name was and then asked if he had called the police.

That’s when Michael Scott Canfield, 42, of St. Paul told the meter reader, “he didn't have time for this and yes he had called the police,” Canfield then ran back to the front of the house—and the Xcel employee ran back to his vehicle to leave the area.

While going to his vehicle, the meter reader said he heard two gunshots coming from the back of the home, the complaint states. He then saw a man detectives believe to be Canfield run to the vehicle parked in the driveway, get in the driver’s seat and speed away from the scene.

When deputies arrived, the meter reader was “visibly shaken up and upset from the incident,” the complaint states. He told deputies that the gun was pointed directly at him and that he thought he was going to be shot.

Deputies checked the residence and found a window over the deck had been broken and a chair had been pushed up under the window. There was broken glass on the chair—on the ground and the deck—and a blood smear on the side of the house near the broken window.

The sliding patio door was open, and the owner later reported that the security bar for the door had been moved.

Deputies also saw two holes in the dirt in the rear of the home that appeared to be bullet holes, the complaint states. Shell casings were found near the holes and a .45 caliber bullet was later recovered from the ground under one of the holes.

Deputies also noted that the front door of the home was open and a cigarette butt was found on the side of the deck.

Detectives then called a K-9 officer to the scene that tracked into the wooded area behind the home. A short time later a woman, identified as Andrea Rae Hathaway of Plymouth, was found near the area where the K-9 was tracking.

According to the complaint, Hathaway admitted that she had come from the home on 47th Street and that the K-9 was likely tracking her.

She had dirty feet, scratches on her body and her pants were torn as if she had been running though the woods or brush, the complaint states. She initially told detectives she had gotten in a verbal altercation with someone and got out of the car. She reportedly said she was in the area visiting “a friend of a friend.”

She eventually told detectives that Canfield had picked her up and drove to the Stillwater area to visit a friend. When they got to the home, she told detectives, Canfield went around to the back of the home, broke a window and pushed her through.

Hathaway told detectives she hen opened the patio door and let Canfield into the home. She then helped Canfield carry items out of the home, the complaint states. Hathaway told detectives this was her first time committing burglary with Canfield.

Hathaway told detectives when she saw a minivan pull into the driveway of the home, she “panicked” and ran away.  As she ran from the home, Hathaway told detectives she heard two loud bangs.

A flat-screen TV, laptop computer and some jewelry were reportedly missing from the home.

Canfield reportedly told detectives that Hathaway was not involved, and that she only did "what she was supposed to do,” the complaint states. He initially denied being at the home, but later admitted that he broke into the home on 47th Street. Detectives later found the stolen property in a blue Explorer parked in Stillwater. Deputies searched the area around where the vehicle was left parked and located a .45 caliber handgun on the ground next to a tree in the woods adjacent to where the vehicle was parked.

Canfield admitted to possessing the gun, and told detectives “he fired the two shots accidentally when he was trying to manipulate the safety on the handgun.”

Hathaway was charged with aiding and abetting in a second-degree burglary. Canfield was charged with first-degree burglary while in possession of a weapon and a felon in possession of a firearm.