On April 15, 2026, Washington County Sheriff's Deputy Anlauf was dispatched to a report of theft. He spoke with the complainant, JLJ ([DOB redacted]) and his wife, RJJ ([DOB redacted]) in person. JLJ and RJJ live in St. Mary's Point, Washington County, Minnesota. JLJ said that they met with an individual in person on Saturday, April 11, 2026 to sell him their vehicle. That individual was identified as KADEN EDMUND HILLQUIST ([DOB redacted]). Hillquist told JLJ and RJJ that he wanted to buy their 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee for a friend, who was with him, named "Brie." Hillquist provided JLJ and RJJ with a check written out to them for the Jeep in the amount of $6,000.00. After the sale, JLJ deposited the check into his U. S. Bank account, and then waited a few days to see if the check cleared.
On Monday, April 13, 2026, JLJ learned that the account associated with the check did not have the necessary funds to cover the $6,000.00 value. Attempts were made to contact Hillquist and "Brie" but those attempts were not successful. Later, on April 15, 2026, Deputy Anlauf made contact with Hillquist via phone. He said that he had the money in his account and he would get in touch with JLJ and RJJ to rectify the situation. After Hillquist failed to get in touch with JLJ in a timely manner, Deputy Hillquist set up a conference call between the two and listened in on the conversation.
Hillquist told JLJ that he had some unexpected medical bills that he needed to pay immediately after the vehicle sale, but that he had $7,000.00 in his account at the time he wrote the check for the vehicle. Hillquist said he could not return the vehicle because he had already sold it to another party for scrap due to mechanical issues with the vehicle. JLJ agreed to give Hillquist some additional time to rectify the situation. Hillquist agreed to call JLJ on April 18, 2026 with a solution. On April 21, 2026 Deputy Anlauf made contact with JLJ again, who said that Hillquist did call him and said he was going to get a loan from family members to pay him, but that had not happened.
JLJ tried to call Hillquist again, but he did not get an answer and Hillquist did not call him back. As of April 26, 2026 the funds for the car have not appeared in JLJ's account. Deputy Anlauf obtained a search warrant for Hillquist's bank records and the account on which he wrote the bad check to JLJ. When he reviewed the documents, Deputy Anlauf saw that Hillquist had opened the account on March 31, 2026, with a deposit of $850.00. He immediately became overdrawn on April 1, 2026 by withdrawing $900.00. At no point after this did the account ever have a positive balance.
He continued to write checks on the account with inadequate funds in the days following, including a check for $3,300.00 on April 3, 2026, a check for $8,800.00 on April 6, 2026, and a check for $4,700.00 on April 8, 2026.
