Funkley Man Arrested In Connection With Burglaries In Three Counties

A Funkley man was arrested last week in connection to multiple burglaries across Beltrami County, Koochiching County and Itasca County.

Acting on information shared between The Koochiching County Sheriff’s Office, Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office and Blackduck Police Department, Blackduck Police Chief Jace Grangruth located a vehicle in the city of Blackduck that had been identified as being in the commission of a residential burglary in Koochiching. The incident happened last Tuesday a little before 3 in the afternoon. Grangurth was on patrol at the time of the find. Contact was made with the driver of the vehicle, who was later identified as David A. Pope, 53, of Funkley.

Joined by Beltrami County Deputy Thomas Mishler and Koochiching County Deputy Mastin, information was obtained to seek a search warrant of the Pope residence in Funkley. Funkley is located 32 miles northeast of Bemidji, near the Beltrami County border with Koochiching and Itasca Counties. The search warrant was executed later that afternoon. As a result, a large amount of stolen property was recovered from the residence. The stolen property included items such as lawn equipment, power tools, firearms and other household items that had been reported taken during burglaries and thefts. Some of the burglaries 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 the initial search warrant, several more search warrants from Koochiching and Itasca counties have been executed which led to the recovery of a large amount of stolen property.

Koochching, Itasca and Beltrami County deputies are working diligently to identify the owners of the property and return it to the owners. The investigation is ongoing 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, last Thursday on July 12^th. He posted a $25,000 bond and was released on Monday.