A 26-year-old man is facing charges in two cases after allegedly stealing an SUV from a Bloomington parking garage, using a stolen card at a gas station and big-box stores across the Twin Cities, then leading police on a high-speed chase the next day.
The crime spree started on the morning of Monday, April 27, when the vehicle was taken from an apartment building at 8101 Normandale Lake Boulevard in Bloomington.
Abdirahman Yusuf Hassan, of Minneapolis, has been charged with theft of a motor vehicle, receiving stolen property and financial transaction card fraud, all felonies, in a Hennepin County case tied to the apartment garage theft.
According to the criminal complaint, Hassan drove off in a 2024 Honda CR-V and used a second resident’s card at stores in Minneapolis and Roseville the same morning.
The owner of the Honda CR-V reported the vehicle missing on Monday, April 27. The owner had parked the vehicle in the apartment’s parking garage the day before, on Sunday, April 26, when they returned to find it gone. The owner hadn’t given anyone permission to drive it, the court documents say.
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Investigators determined that a financial transaction card belonging to a second resident of the same apartment building had been used without that resident’s knowledge or consent. The card was used at the Holiday Gas Station at 601 North 5th Street in Minneapolis at 5:25 a.m. for $34.60. Two attempted purchases at the Roseville Walmart at 1960 Twin Lakes Parkway — for $216.66 and $159.76 — were declined at 7:34 a.m. A third charge of $121.65 went through at 8:10 a.m. at the Roseville Target at 1515 County Road B West.
Surveillance video at all three locations showed a man wearing a green fleece jacket, gray sweatpants and white/grey shoes, and driving the stolen Honda CR-V, at the exact times the purchases were made.
The investigating officer then sent an alert seeking help identifying and locating the suspect. Minnetonka Police responded that they already had a man matching the description in their custody. The man was identified as Hassan, and investigators determined he matched the surveillance video.
In an encounter with St. Louis Park Police, Hassan spontaneously said, “Such a dumb choice of f***ing stealing this car, bro. Like I didn’t, it wasn’t me who did that, but it was just, I’m sorry bro.” Officers found the keys to the stolen Honda CR-V on Hassan and observed two dealer plates on the front passenger-side floorboard. The original license plate had been removed from the vehicle.
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In a post-Miranda statement, Hassan said he didn’t know exactly where he got the vehicle but recalled it was a garage near the Renaissance Hotel at 5500 American Boulevard West in Bloomington, which is on the same block as the apartment building where the Honda CR-V was taken.
According to a separate criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County on May 8, the same gray Honda CR-V was used in a Bloomington store theft the morning of Tuesday, April 28 — the day after it was stolen. A Bloomington officer spotted the vehicle eastbound on Old Shakopee Road at 9:18 a.m., a minute after officers responded to a theft report from a business at 9800 Lyndale Avenue South.
When the officer activated emergency lights, the driver took off, traveling at a high rate of speed, driving the wrong way in traffic lanes and running a four-way stop. The officer attempted a PIT maneuver but was not successful, and called off the pursuit when the Honda CR-V got onto Interstate 494.
A store employee later identified Hassan from surveillance video and told officers he was trespassed from the business through November 29. He has since been charged in that case with third-degree burglary and fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle, both felonies. Bail was set at $20,000.
Bloomington officers booked Hassan into the Hennepin County Jail on Tuesday, May 5, and he had around 15 outstanding warrants at the time of his arrest.
Court records show theft cases against Hassan filed across the metro between 2024 and 2026, with charges out of Robbinsdale, Crystal, Richfield, Minneapolis, St. Anthony and Bloomington, plus holds out of Anoka, Dakota and Ramsey counties. Hassan has repeatedly failed to appear in those cases, generating a long string of bench warrants that were served when he was booked.
Bail in the Honda CR-V case was set at $5,000. Hassan made his first appearance Friday, May 8, in Hennepin County District Court before Judge Jane Maschka, who granted him a public defender. An omnibus hearing in the case is scheduled for June 5.
If convicted on each count, he faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
