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Homeowners wrestle clothes from burglar, who flees in underwear

A burglar in St. Cloud, Minn. didn't exactly streak down the street, but he was clad with only the bare minimum, police said.

By Tim Harlow, Star Tribune

Last update: November 20, 2007 – 1:00 PM

A burglar in St. Cloud, Minn. didn’t exactly streak down the street, but he was clad with only the bare minimum, police said.

The suspect left his shoes and “numerous clothing articles” behind and was wearing only a T-shirt and boxer briefs when he ran from a residence on the 800 block of Pebble Creek Drive, police said.

The burglar was inside the house around 8 p.m. Monday when a father and son arrived to find him taking items from the house. They confronted the man and a physical altercation ensued. Several items of clothing were torn off during the struggle in which the suspect received a cut to the left temple area, police said. Witness told police the suspect wasn’t wearing much when he ran northeast from the residence.

Police dogs tracked the suspect’s scent to an adjacent street where it is believed he entered a vehicle and drove off.

He is described as a man with a dark complexion of an unknown race and in his early 20s. He is about 5 feet 7 inches with a heavier build, has dark hair and a goatee, police said.

A second suspect who was in the house also got away. He is described as a white male in his early 20s. He stands about 5 feet 10 inches with a medium build and a blonde beard.

The homeowners were treated at St. Cloud Hospital for minor injuries and then released, police said.

Anybody with information can call St. Cloud Police at 1-320-251-1200 or Crime Stoppers at 1-320-255-1301.

Tim Harlow • harlow@startribune.com

I just want you all to know if you have seen CNN or looked onto Yahoo News, that yes a very popular bridge on a very popular road during rush hour has collapsed in the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. First, obviously I am ok. Second, this is a huge tragedy for Minnesota, so please keep us in your thoughts/prayers.

I-35W bridge collapses

Star Tribune staff

Last update: August 01, 2007 – 8:05 PM

The Interstate Hwy. 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed during the evening rush hour Wednesday, dumping an estimated 50 vehicles into the water and onto the land below, creating a horrific scene of damage, fire, smoke, injuries, frantic rescuers and bloody, terrified motorists.

It was not clear how many people might have been hurt or killed, but witnesses said at least 20 cars were involved. As of 7:30, one construction worker was unaccounted for and three injured. Rescuers rushed to help people escape cars trapped in the V where the bridge had caved in. Many vehicles, including at least one semitractor trailer, were on fire. People were also reportedly floundering in the river.

The crumpled wreckage of the bridge lay on the east bank of the river, and a huge section of concrete roadway lay on the west bank. Down below in the river gorge, rescue workers scrambled to help people on the roadway that now lay in the gorge. Fire and black smoke rose from the wreckage. Workers had been repairing the 40-year-old bridge’s surface as part of improvements along that stretch of the interstate.

Officials set up a triage center for some of the injured at the American Red Cross office a block from the bridge, said Red Cross spokeswoman Tammy Nystuen.

“I know that at least some of the kids from the school bus are there. I don’t know where they’re from or if anybody is badly hurt,” she said. The building is at 1201 West River Parkway.

Paul McCabe, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Minneapolis, said the FBI has responed to the collapsed bridge to offer assistance and conduct any investigation that proves necessary. But he said there was "no reason at this time to believe there's any nexus to terrorism."

Berndt Toivonen, 51, of Minneapolis, was on his way home from a painting job when it collapsed beneath his car.

“The bridge started to buckle,” he said. “It went up and it came down. I thought I was gonna die.” His Ford Explorer rolled backwards about 50 feet, and he hit the brakes. He was uninjured, but all around him people were screaming from their cars, some with injuries. He went from vehicle to vehicle helping people out.

Four cars were submerged in the river upstream of the bridge and a rescue worker waded in the water searching for survivors. On the east bank, only a small section of the bridge support was still standing, and it was creaking as rescue workers carried out the injured.

People nearby said they heard a sound like an earthquake or a plane crash, and the collapse set off alarms in the nearby Stone Arch Apartments.

“It just came down, a crash, smoke everywhere... A whole bunch of people were screaming, people were trapped in their cars,’’ said Ross MacMillan, 39, who had just driven under the bridge on 2nd Street.

Sarah Fahnhorst, who was in her apartment a block away from the bridge, heard a huge thud and then “the entire building shook” as the bridge fell.

“It shook the ground,” she said.

Dayna Wolfe, who lives near the Stone Arch Bridge, heard the collapse and came out on her bicycle to see what had happened. Wolfe, a physician and physical therapist, said she is certain that many people had been killed or were trapped in their cars. She said the scene was worse than any of the many earthquakes she had survived in California.

“This is the kind of stuff you see with gigantic earthquakes,” she said. “You don’t see this kind of thing in Minnesota.”

Ramon Houge of St. Paul was on his way home from work and was on the bridge when he heard a rumbling noise and cars in front of him began to go down. He said cars that could backed up to a construction zone and was finally able to turn around and drive off the bridge. “It didn’t seem like it was real,” he said.

Traffic was bumper to bumper and hundreds of people would have been involved, he said, adding that he saw kids get off a crashed bus on the bridge with blood on their faces.

A school bus, filled with 60 children, ages 5 to 17, returning from a daycamp was on the bridge when it collapsed, injuring at least two children and two adults seriously, according to one of the children.

“We collapsed,” said Ryan Watkins. He said the bus bounced twice and then stopped. He and others escaped out the rear door of the bus because the front door was wedged against a concrete traffic barrier. The kids were returning from a day of swimming at Bunker Beach, said Watkins. They are members of the Waite House summer program based in Minneapolis.

Marcelo Cruz, 26, of Crystal, who has used a wheelchair since being paralyzed in a shooting in South Carolina several years ago, was driving his van across the bridge toward downtown when he felt it began to wave up and down. He steered into the concrete railing to stop himself from driving into the river, and saw many cars on the bridge fall into the water.

His van came to rest steeply inclined toward the river and several onlookers ran and told him to get out. He said he needed help and the onlookers carried him out of his van in his wheelchair to safety on the riverbank.

“I’m lucky to be alive,” he said over and over again.

Gary Babineau, 24, of Blaine, was headed northbound on 35W when the bridge gave way.

“I can’t believe I’m alive,” he said. “I saw a couple of cars go down completely,” he said. “It just totally collapsed.”

There was a school bus next to him and there were a lot of kids inside, he said. A lot of them were bleeding and he helped them come up to safety. A lot of the children were taken away by ambulance, he said.

“My truck got cut into two pieces,” said Babineau, who was bleeding from his nose.

Jay Danz, 45, of St. Paul was driving to the Twins game and took W. River Parkway under the bridge just before it collapsed.

“I heard it creaking and making all sorts of noise it shouldn’t make,” he said. “And then the bridge just started to fall apart.”

Danz said he was just five feet past the bridge when it collapsed behind him. Twisted green girders lay on the ground behind him.

He got out of his car and saw a school bus full of kids sitting askew on the collapsed road above him. He scrambled up a hill to help kids get off the bus.

“Some kids had blood on their faces, but thank God, everybody could move,” Danz said. “Every seemed OK.”

There were cars behind him on River Pkwy., but Danz said they were far enough behind that he didn’t think they were under the bridge when it fell.

John Joachim of Taylors Falls took 35W to the Twins game and said traffic suddenly “slammed to a stop” he neared University Avenue.

“I didn’t know what was going on but a huge cloud of dust rose in front of us,” he said.

Louis Rogers, 28, of Roseville was driving home from work listening to music in his Chevy Blazer when the bridge gave way just feet in front of him.

“It just disappeared; it made no sound whatsoever,” he said. “It was pretty much like a thud, not too loud of a thud. The next thing I know, cars were dropping and there was smoke. My car was no more than five feet from the edge.”

Rogers tried to help some of the people in cars that had fallen into the river and stopped on the bridge. “I saw a lady in a car and I screamed, but I got no response,” he said. “I grabbed my bag and started signalling cars to get out of there.”

Ryan Murphey, , 30, Minneapolis, went to the scene to see if he could help out.

“It looked a terrorist attack, a complete catastrophe,” Murphey said. “But everyone there was very calm and organized.” He helped remove two victims frmo the east side of the bridge on stretchers, including a woman in her late 50s with a “bloody face.” Jane Marshall, 27, of Minneapolis, and her sister were behind Rogers on the highway and were on their way to the Twins game. They were driving toward the bridge when it collapsed.

“I still can’t believe it,” she said an hour after the bridge collapsed. “We were so close. If we hadn’t stopped to get gas, it might have been us there.”

The two called their parents right away to let them know they were OK. “We’re not sure if we’re going to the game or not,” Marshall said. “It just hit us -- we could have died.”

The Twins decided to play Wednesday night’s game, but only after the public address announcer alerted the crowd at 7:08 p.m. of the bridge’s collapse. A moment of prayer followed. It was then announced that the game would go on so emergency crews could perform their duties without the added pressure of having 20,000 to 25,000 people scrambling in swarms from the Dome area.

Amidst the rescue efforts, the Minnesota State Patrol said at 7 p.m. that the cause of the bridge collapse remained undetermined.

Traffic was being stopped at University Avenue from the North and Washington Avenue from the south. The State Patrol was setting up a command post.

The arched bridge had risen about 64 feet above the river before its collapse at the end of rush hour, when cars were bumper to bumper in traffic. Area law enforcement, including the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, had launched at least three boats to help with the rescues.