Fridley Cops: Frisbee-Golf-Loving Freeway Speeder Finally Caught in Closet

It started Wednesday night with a minivan speeding west on I-694 through Fridley at a rate of speed of 80 miles per hour or faster, according to Fridley Police Lt. Mike Monsrud.

It ended with Fridley and Minneapolis police arresting a suspect hiding in a closet at a north Minneapolis residence, Monsrud said.

Monsrud offered this account of the incident by email Thursday afternoon:

On March 13, 2013 at 11:29 PM a Fridley Police patrol  officer attempted to stop a car for speeding on Westbound I-694 near Main St. The vehicle was traveling over 80 MPH at that time. The officer get behind the vehicle and activated the lights and siren. The vehicle continued onto EB I-94 and failed to stop for the squad car. The vehicle exited onto 53rd/49th Ave and began to run stop signs and rapidly accelerate. At that time Fridley Police discontinued the pursuit.

(An aside: At this point in the story, the administrator of the Police Clips Facebook page, who monitors emergency radio scanners, posted, "The frisbee golf loving, mini-van driving, speeder got away. (Yes, those are real descriptions)." Monsrud confirmed Thursday that "there was a frisbee golf sticker on the rear window of the minivan.")

Back to the Fridley Police Department's account:

Minneapolis police were advised of the situation and given a vehicle description including a license plate number. A while later Minneapolis Police advised us they had located the vehicle unoccupied in the 4300 block of Girard Ave N. Fridley police responded to that location and confirmed this was the vehicle that had fled from them. Fridley police and Minneapolis police located the driver of the vehicle hiding in a closet of a residence of that same block. The male was taken into custody and booked at the Anoka County jail for fleeing police in a motor vehicle. Witnesses confirms that this suspect was the person driving the vehicle when it fled from police. The suspect is a 42 year old Minneapolis man. We have sent this case to the Anoka County Attorney’s office for review. We expect formal charges to be filed tomorrow morning.