Charges: Pizza Delivery Man Stalked Burnsville Woman
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 31-year-old Apple Valley man who works as a pizza delivery carrier is accused of stalking a woman at her Burnsville residence, according to charges filed in Dakota County Court.
James Matthew Beyer was charged with one felony count of pattern of stalking conduct in connection with the case. Authorities say the conduct happened between Nov. 26 and Dec. 13.
According to the charges, a woman called police at about 7:45 a.m. on Nov. 29 reporting suspicious activity. The woman told police she observed footprints in the snow that showed someone was peeping into her windows. The same footprints went from the roadway past the driveway on the 13000 block of Plymouth Avenue and between buildings to the woman's patio door, about 120 to 150 feet.
The complaint states the footprints didn't go to any other residence and that they weren't there the night before, when she had a guest over. The guest didn't notice any footprints there when he left. The woman had also lost her house key and had her door locks replaced on Nov. 28.
The woman called police again on Dec. 7 to report continuing suspicious behavior. Her boyfriend set up a deer trail camera in the bushes outside the woman's residence near her patio door the night before. The camera got a picture of the man, later identified as Beyer, peering into the back window that looks into the living room. The image was captured just before 4 a.m. of a white male wearing a cut-off shirt and glasses, the complaint states.
The woman told police that her 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son live with her. According to the complaint, the woman said she is scared to sleep in her house unless her boyfriend is there for fear that the man will break in while she's asleep.
The complaint states at about 3:11 a.m. on Dec. 11, the camera captured the suspect attempting to break open the woman's back door. Two days later, pictures were taken of the man peering into the window just before 4 a.m. The man appears to have his hand down his pants and appears to be masturbating.
Further investigation showed that the suspect worked at a Domino's Pizza in Burnsville. Police waited for him to arrive to there, where he stopped into get a pizza and left. They soon after conducted a traffic stop on him. The man matched the description of the suspect, and inside his car police located keys to the woman's residence as well as drug paraphernalia and marijuana.
The woman told police she has been having trouble sleeping for a few weeks and had been very scared, knowing the man was watching her. She hadn't left her house or taken her kids to school and put chairs in front of her door to try and block the man from coming in, the complaint states.
The man told police that he had gone to a townhouse off Plymouth Avenue one night to urinate. He said he was diabetic, which causes him to urinate frequently. He said he picked the townhouse because he wanted to see what was inside. On the days he was working, he admitted to being at the residence about 10 times between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. According to the complaint, he told police that he and his wife are behind on their rent bills and thought if he could steal a TV and computer inside the residence, he could make money and get out of debt.
He admitted that if there was an opportunity, he would've gone inside the residence. He told police he stole the keys out of the front lock of the residence about a month before being arrested.
If convicted, Beyer faces up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
