Fugitive Burglar Charged with Breaking Into Minnetonka Apartment

A Minneapolis man has been charged with burglarizing a Minnetonka home in July and leaving behind DNA evidence that allowed police to identify him as a suspect.

Edwin Dale Meaney, 59, is charged with second-degree burglary, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

Minnetonka Police were called to a home in the 10200 block of Greenbrier Road on July 9 to investigate an apartment burglary, according to the criminal complaint.

A woman told police that her boyfriend had been out of the country since July 2 and she had come to his apartment to turn on his air conditioning before he returned. When she arrived, she found the front door unlocked with a pry mark on the door latch and another on the door’s outer edge.

The woman said she took a few steps into the apartment and found items scattered across the floor and on the bed and an aluminum briefcase open in a spare bedroom.

The victim arrived home about two hours later and reported to police that a number of items were missing, including several cameras, an iPod, jewelry, a GPS unit and a large piggy bank.

The burglar apparently left two kitchen knives lying on the floor. Police collected them as evidence and sent them to the Hennepin County crime lab.

Technicians matched DNA found on the knife handles to that of Meaney, who was convicted in 2009 of a burglary in St. Louis Park.

In trying to locate Meaney, police discovered that he had been listed as a fugitive by the Minnesota Department of Corrections for two years and that he was being sought on a burglary warrant in St. Louis Park.

Meaney’s criminal record includes felony convictions for first-degree burglary and second-degree assault in 1989, with a charge of attempted murder dismissed. He also was convicted of second-degree burglary in 1997 and 2009, and first-degree burglary in 2002.

Meaney remains in the Hennepin County Jail on a $40,000 bond and on a Department of Corrections hold for a potential probation violation. He is also being held on a warrant charging him with second-degree burglary in St. Louis Park. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled Nov. 20 in Hennepin County District Court.