Two Saint Paul men broke a window of an Eagan store with a rock before dawn and cleared out a display case of rare Pokémon trading cards worth $26,475.44, according to criminal complaints.
Yeng Yang, 34, is charged in Dakota County District Court with felony third-degree burglary and felony theft of property worth more than $5,000. Mitchell Teng Yang, 37, faces the same two charges in a separate complaint. Both complaints were filed Oct. 26. A judge issued a warrant for each man’s arrest after prosecutors said their whereabouts were unknown.
Eagan police responded to the burglary at a store on Diffley Road at about 3:44 a.m. June 27, the complaints say. Surveillance video showed two people break out a window with a rock, climb through, break into a display case and load high-value merchandise into white garbage bags before fleeing back out the window.
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A white plastic bag like the ones the burglars used was found on top of the broken glass in front of the display case, according to the complaints. The owner said it had not been there before. Video appears to show one of the suspects dropping a bag near the case. A state crime lab later matched the major male DNA profile on the bag to Yeng Yang through a state DNA database.
Detectives learned of a similar theft at a Pokémon card store in Osseo in July in which the suspects fled in a red Kia Sportage registered to Mitchell Yang, the complaints say. A person who knew both men reviewed the Eagan video and said he believed the two suspects were Mitchell Yang and Yeng Yang based on their builds, movements and mannerisms.
Location data from Mitchell Yang’s phone placed him near the Eagan store that night, traveling toward it just before the burglary and away from it just after, according to the complaints.
