Charges: Anoka Man Entered Woman's Apartment, Stole Underwear

ANOKA, Minn. (WCCO) -- A 36-year-old Anoka man is accused of breaking into the apartment next door and taking a young girl's underwear.

According to the criminal complaint, the girl told police she discovered the man standing in the middle of her apartment hallway on Nov. 7.

Investigators say he ran out of the apartment and down the stairs of the building. The girl followed him and found him in a small area underneath the stairwell, sweating profusely and rocking back and forth with his shirt pulled down over his knees.

That's when the girl saw a pair of her underwear sitting next to him.

When police interrogated the man -- later identified as James Anthony Howard -- he said he didn't take the girls' underwear, and was only in the apartment because he wanted to return two cats that had gotten out.

He later changed his story and admitted to taking the underwear, the complaint says.

Howard is charged with first-degree burglary.