CROOKSTON-A 33-year-old man was charged with burglary after video surveillance caught him inside a lake cabin.
Christopher Allen Gadbaw, Winger, Minn., made his first appearance Thursday in Polk County District Court after being arrested Tuesday and charged with second-degree burglary, a felony.
Sheriff's deputies were dispatched Monday around 7:30 p.m. to a lake cabin in rural Erskine, Minn., after a caller said he saw Gadbaw inside the cabin on his video surveillance, according to a criminal complaint.
Deputies found a set of footprints on the deck and pry marks on the back door of the cabin, according to the complaint.
After following the tracks into the woods and out onto the lake, where they lost the tracks, the deputies returned to the cabin and found no one inside but did find two partial fingerprints by the garage window, according to the complaint.
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The deputies matched the man in the surveillance footage to Gadbaw and drove to his residence.
According to the complaint, Gadbaw admitted he entered the house by prying open the back door with a screwdriver and intended to steal something, but when he saw the deputies show up, he got scared and left.
Gadbaw was arrested and taken to the Northwest Regional Corrections Center.
He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Gadbaw's next appearance is 9 a.m. Tuesday.
A permanent fish house on Union Lake near the residence was also burglarized, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. It's unknown if the burglaries are related.
Anyone who had a fish house burglarized is asked to contact the Sheriff's Office at (218) 281-0431.
