On December 26, 2025, at approximately 9:34 AM, Officer Satzke with the Rochester Police Department received a call regarding a report of mail theft at an apartment complex in Rochester, Olmsted County, Minnesota. Officer Satzke spoke with an adult female, fully identified in police reports (hereinafter “Manager”), who stated she arrived at work at 9:00 that day. Upon her arrival, she observed the building’s package room was empty with every shelf cleared of packages. Manager stated she had never observed the room to be empty before, so she watched surveillance footage to determine what happened to the mail.
She observed a white male in a black jacket and black beanie entered the room at 3:27 AM on December 26. The man systematically emptied the mail room over the course of the next three hours. The packages were loaded into a white transportation van, and the video footage did not capture the van’s license plate due to the lighting conditions. Manager stated no other suspects assisted the man. Manager advised Officer Satzke that the mail room is secured with a key fob access system, and no fob was scanned at the time the suspect entered the mail room.
Officer Satzke reviewed the surveillance footage and observed a white male who appeared to be in his late 20s removing the packages from the mail room. The suspect placed packages into cardboard boxes and carried them outside. Officer Satzke estimated the suspect removed a couple hundred pieces of mail from the mail room. Officer Satzke spoke with the apartment complex’s regional manager, who stated that five electronic devices were stolen from the office, and one of the devices was showing as “active” at an address near 41st Street Northwest and 15th Avenue Northwest.
The devices were each worth approximately $1,000. Over the next few days, multiple residents reported their mail as being stolen during this incident. On December 31, 2025, Detective Bartsch with the Rochester Police Department was assigned to this case for further investigation. In his review, he learned that on December 1, 2025, Officer Turner with the Rochester Police Department was dispatched to a burglary and motor vehicle theft at a storage unit located in Rochester, Olmsted County, Minnesota.
Upon his arrival, he discovered a transit van had been stolen out of a storage garage. The van was identical to the van used in the mail theft on December 26, 2025. The suspect who stole the van had arrived in a white Mazda, and the suspect was wearing a black puffy jacket and what appeared to be snowpants. The van contained multiple identifiable tools and fishing gear. Officer Turner learned that law enforcement officers in Oakdale, Minnesota had initiated a traffic stop on a 2014 white Mazda bearing Minnesota license plate ending in 490. One of the vehicle’s occupants was ZACHARY JAMES BUNNELL, [DOB REDACTED]. During the traffic stop, officers located several tools and fishing gear that they believed to be stolen.
