Small Town News

Stolen horse tack recovered, woman arrested

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Saturday, Feb. 13, the Meeker County Sheriff's Office, with the Wright County Sheriff's Office, Carver County Sheriff's Office, and the Renville County Sher-iff's Office, executed a search war-rant at 73265 640th St. in Franklin, Minn., located in Renville County. As a result, stolen property was recovered and Dena Joy Rodacker, age 44 of Hutchinson was arrested, and is currently being held in the Renville County Jail pending for-mal charges.

Information was gathered dur-ing the course of several separate investigations conducted by law enforcement agencies through-out central Minnesota, involving burglary and thefts of horse tack, including a December 2009 report from Alan Koch of rural Litchfield. Mr. Koch reported to the Meeker County Sheriff's Office the loss of several thousands of dollars worth of horse-related tack. Recently Mr. Koch recognized one of his stolen saddles for sale online and alerted the Meeker County Sher-iff's Office. This particular saddle was worth about $4,000.

The Meeker County Sheriff's Office, along with assistance of the Wadena County Sheriff's Office, began an undercover online con-versation with Rodacker to gather further information and addi-tional photographs of this saddle. With this and other information, the search warrant was obtained to search the residence in Frank-lin. Several thousand dollars worth of horse tack equipment, including saddles, bridles, horse pads, stirrups, girths, breast-col-lars, horse blankets, and other var-ious items were seized.

The investigation continues into these burglaries and thefts.



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© 2010 Tri-County News Kimball, Minnesota. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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