Beltrami, Itasca, and Koochiching County Deputies and Blackduck Police investigate multiple burglaries in the Funkley area

FUNKLEY, MN—On Tuesday, July 10, 2018 at approximately 2:51 PM, acting on information shared between the Koochiching County Sheriff’s Office, Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office and the Blackduck Police Department, Blackduck Police Chief Jace Grangruth, while on patrol, located a vehicle in the city of Blackduck that had been identified as being used in the commission of residential burglary in Koochiching County.

Contact was made with the driver of the vehicle, identified as David A. Pope, age 53, of Funkley, MN. Joined by Beltrami County Deputy Thomas Mishler and Koochiching County Deputy Mastin information was obtained to seek a search warrant for the Pope residence in Funkley. Funkley is located 32 miles northeast of Bemidji near the Beltrami County border with Koochiching and Itasca Counties.

Later that afternoon a search warrant was executed and as a result a large amount of stolen property was recovered from the residence and property that included lawn equipment, power tools, firearms and other household items that had been reported taken during burglaries and thefts. Some of the burglaries and thefts were several years old from Beltrami, Koochiching and Itasca Counties.

Pope was taken into custody and booked into the Beltrami County Jail for Possession of stolen property and possession of stolen firearms. Both are felony level crimes.

As a result of this initial search warrant, several more search warrants from Koochiching and Itasca Counties have been executed, recovering a large cache of stolen property.

Koochiching, Itasca and Beltrami County Deputies are working diligently to identify the owners of the property and return it to the owners. The investigation is on-going with the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office, Koochiching County Sheriff’s Office and Itasca County Sheriff’s Office.

Pope was arraigned in Beltrami County District Court on July 12, 2018 and posted a $25,000 bond and was released from the Beltrami County Jail on July 16, 2018.

Ernie Beitel, Chief Deputy Sheriff

Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office

613 Minnesota Ave. NW.

Bemidji, MN 56601

ernie.beitel@co.beltrami.mn.us