Man Sentenced For Stealing Bomb-Detecting Tools Before Super Bowl
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A man has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for stealing gas masks and a bomb detector before the Super Bowl in Minneapolis.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman's office said that Emitt Long, a 46-year-old who lists no permanent address, was caught breaking into a car the Tuesday before the Super Bowl.
But the vehicle he broke into, the attorney's office said, belonged to law enforcement officers.
Witnesses to the break-in led police to a home in Robbinsdale, where Long surrendered and was arrested. A case he stole from the vehicle contained radiation- and bomb-detecting equipment valued in excess of $80,000.
Long said he used a screwdriver to break a window and grab a large case and lunchbox cooler.
He confessed to looking at what he'd stolen, and tossing everything in a dumpster, with the exception of two gas masks, which he said he kept "because he wanted to smoke weed out of them."
Police were able to recover everything.
Long was sentenced to 20 months in prison. At the sentencing hearing, when asked if he wanted to say anything to the judge, he replied, "I'm tired of this. I want to hug my wife before I go."