Charges: Driver Crashes Car Through Centerpoint Energy Fence

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 37-year-old Burnsville man is accused crashing his car through a fence at Centerpoint Energy in Burnsville, according to charges filed in Dakota County Court.

Tony Dean Boos was charged with first-degree criminal damage to property in connection to the incident, which happened last September.

According to the charges, Burnsville police were called to Centerpoint Energy on Sept. 8, 2016, on a report of a suspicious vehicle that had gone through a front gate and was in the woods with its lights on. Surveillance video shows the vehicle going through the closed gate at 1:40 a.m.

When officers approached the vehicle, it was unoccupied but running with its lights on. The vehicle had extensive damage from ramming through the gate. The complaint states officers located Boos, who appeared very tired and disoriented.

He told officers he had been drinking that night and denied driving the vehicle, saying somebody must have stolen it. The complaint states Boos wasn't concerned about his car, and lay down on a couch to go back to sleep. The officer asked him about his vehicle, and he wasn't concerned and said the last time he saw it was at "about 11 or 2" and that he might have left his keys in it.

According to the complaint, another surveillance video at Centerpoint Energy shows the vehicle driving at a high rate of speed down the driveway and crashing into the fence next to the front gate. A man officers identified as Boos got out of the driver's seat and walked around the vehicle before getting back in and smashing the gate several more times with the car before it broke open.

He then drove the vehicle into the woods, the complaint states.

Authorities estimate the damage to the gate and fence at $2,450. If convicted, he faces up to five years in jail and $10,000 in fines.