On April 4th, 2026, at approximately 9:01 A.M., City of Cloquet police officers and assisting law enforcement officers were dispatched to a report of a burglary in progress at a building at 119 Avenue B, in Cloquet, Minnesota, within Carlton County. En route officers learned the building owner was on the phone with dispatch and he saw someone on camera in the building although nobody had permission to be in the building. Officers arrived on scene and found a window well to the building that had been recently disturbed, and boards had been removed exposing the window well.
There was also fresh foot tracks in the recently fallen snow. The building owner arrived and showed officers video footage of the suspect in the building. The suspect appeared to be a male. Once all officers had arrived at the building, officers entered the building and cleared it. Officers originally did not find the suspect in the building but found a crescent wrench out of place on the floor. In an adjacent room to the boiler room, officers found a brown jacket consistent with the jacket worn by the suspect in the owner’s video.
Officers went back to the boiler and realized it was large enough that a person could fit inside it. Officers eventually located the suspect hiding in the ductwork off the boiler. Officers coaxed him out and identified him as Daniel Gale Nelson, [DOB REDACTED], the defendant herein. On his person, officers found the defendant possessed several tools belonging to the business owner, and a hypodermic syringe. Officers also located a large amount of DeWalt power tools the defendant had stacked near the back door of the building.
The owner estimated the value of the stacked tools in the thousands of dollars. The tools were stacked in a manner leading officers to believe he intended to steal the tools. The owner discovered the defendant had cut the lines on a welder which would need to be replaced. The owner told officers he did not know the defendant, and the defendant did not have permission to be in the building. Officers went back to the outside window well and came to realize this was how the defendant got into the building – he broke the glass to the window and climbed into the building from the window well.
