An ex-employee is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of vehicles, tools and more from a Faribault truck company. Most of the stolen items have been recovered.
Barney Leng, 35, of Faribault, was charged with felony counts of burglary, theft and receiving stolen property last week in Rice County District Court. He was released Friday without having to pay any bail.
Employees arrived at the Allstate Peterbilt facility on 30th Street NW on April 1 to find it had been broken into over the weekend, according to a court complaint.
Missing items included a pickup, a trailer with a side-by-side ATV inside, a golf cart, two laptops, and nine employees’ toolboxes and tools. One of the employees estimated his missing toolbox and tools were worth $100,000.
Two details made employees suspect the burglary was an inside job. Holes were drilled into a side door of the warehouse building at the height needed to create a hole and reach in to remove the metal security bar that was holding the door shut. A forklift had been moved and the forklift had an unusual disconnect button that had been correctly disconnected.
Employees identified Leng as a suspect, according to court documents. They noted that he had been transferred to Iowa last fall and recently had been fired.
The missing vehicles were entered into a law enforcement database and soon after a police officer reported that the missing trailer was found empty and abandoned near Clear Lake, Iowa. A towing company representative reported receiving a call from Leng’s number requesting a tow from the location where the trailer was recovered, court documents say.
The missing ATV was located the next day in an Owatonna garage, according to the charges. The tenant, who is related to Leng, said she did not know where the ATV came from.
A neighbor’s security camera reportedly caught video of a vehicle matching the one Leng drives in the alley. The owner of the house is another person known to Leng and reported she has received a message from Leng stating “I just need one day,” and later a call asking why police had been there.
An alleged accomplice who has not been charged reportedly led authorities to the missing pickup stashed in rural Rice County.
Leng’s cellphone location data allegedly put him in the area of Peterbilt from 12 to 1:40 p.m. March 31. A license plate reader reportedly detected Leng’s vehicle five blocks away from Peterbilt around noon.
Leng was arrested Wednesday at the scene of a garbage fire in the backyard of a Faribault residence also owned by the Owatonna property owner.
Leng declined to talk to police, instead giving an officer a copy of an attorney detainer agreement. The papers reported stated the attorney would defend him in “possible criminal charges” involving the theft of a trailer and ATV that occurred on or around April 1.
In the garage of the Faribault residence, police allegedly found the stolen golf cart.
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