Two arrested in Eagle's Landing burglary

FORT RIPLEY - Two men were arrested early Monday on suspicion of breaking into Eagle's Landing Golf Course in Ripley Township, the Morrison County Sheriff's Department reported.

Deputies responded to an alarm at the golf course about 1 a.m. Monday. Upon arrival, deputies noticed that the back door to the clubhouse appeared to have been forced in causing damage to it and that the phone lines inside the clubhouse had been damaged, the sheriff's department said.

After determining that the suspects were no longer in the building, deputies formed a perimeter around the golf course and summoned a Baxter Police Department K-9 Unit to the scene along with the State Patrol helicopter and nearby Crow Wing County sheriff's deputies. A search of the golf course revealed that the suspects were no longer at the scene. It was unclear at the time whether anything was missing from the golf course, the sheriff's department said.

Deputies did, however, notice fresh tire tracks on a field road near the southeast corner of the golf course and fresh footprints leading through some wet tall grass and over the fence onto the golf course.

After the search of the area was concluded, deputies prepared to leave the scene when a Morrison County sheriff's deputy observed a white van driving suspiciously near the golf course. As the deputy attempted to approach the vehicle, he noticed that it pulled onto a dead end road south of the golf course. The deputy approached the vehicle and noticed two male suspects acting nervously in the vehicle.

The deputy immediately observed various burglary tools, including angle grinders, Sawzalls, and pry bars in the vehicle, along with a police scanner, flashlights and gloves. Neither occupant could clearly account for what they were doing at that location. Also, both suspects were observed to be wet up to their knees as though they'd recently been in water or wet grass.

Based on their observations, deputies arrested 35-year old Brent Paul Martin and 45-year old James Irving Dale, both of Annandale, on suspicion of burglary.

Morrison County sheriff's investigators are working with investigators across central Minnesota to determine whether Dale and Martin may have been involved with a rash of golf course burglaries throughout the central part of the state.

Both men were transported to the Morrison County jail and are being held pending the preparation of formal charges.