Complainant, a detective with the Eden Prairie Police Department, has investigated the facts and circumstances of this offense and believes the following establishes probable cause: Complainant opened an investigation into Defendant MARQUAIL TAIJON TOWNSEND ([DOB redacted]), who was a suspect in several incidents involving thefts from parked cars followed by the fraudulent use or attempted use of financial transaction cards taken in the thefts. The vehicle tampering and thefts occurred in Lifetime Fitness parking lots and other locations in Eden Prairie, Hennepin County, and elsewhere in the metro area.
Complainant gathered Eden Prairie and other agency police reports indicating that Defendant was known to use a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu with Minnesota temporary plate 03898326 in connection with vehicle tampering and thefts. Police obtained a warrant authorizing the use of license plate readers for live alerts to the Malibu’s location. On October 1, 2025, a license plate reader at Lifetime Fitness in Minnetonka alerted officers to the Malibu’s location there. Minnetonka police observed Defendant tampering with a vehicle in the Lifetime parking lot.
Defendant was arrested and found to be in possession of a financial transaction card in the name of M. S., who later confirmed that she did not know Defendant. M. S. Said the card was an old one and that she might have left it in a car she recently sold to an identified friend; her friend indicated that he worked at Lifetime Fitness in Eden Prairie and confirmed that M. S.’s old card had been in the car he bought from her but had gone missing. The Malibu was towed to the Minnetonka police department, where police searched it pursuant to a warrant.
During the search of the Malibu, police found items in the names of ten individuals, including financial transaction cards, insurance cards, driver’s licenses, and ID cards. Police were able to contact four of those people, each of whom confirmed that they had recently been the victim of a vehicle break-in. Prior to releasing the Malibu, police affixed a mobile tracking device to it pursuant to a court order. On October 14, 2025, at 10:29 A.M., Eden Prairie police observed Defendant in the parking lot of Lifetime Fitness in Plymouth.
The mobile tracking device places the Malibu in that parking lot from 10:29 A.M. Through 10:43 A.M. A wallet belonging to L. S. Was stolen from a car in the parking lot of Lifetime Fitness in Plymouth that day. Minutes after it left the Plymouth Lifetime Fitness, at 10:55 A.M. On October 14, 2025, the Malibu entered the parking lot of Lifetime Fitness in Eden Prairie. Police saw Defendant tamper with another vehicle in the parking lot, from which he took credit cards and personal items. Police arrested Defendant and located L. S.’s wallet nearby.
