After Susanna Parent’s bag was stolen June 18, 2024, from her vehicle in St. Paul, including her 10-month-old son’s baby book, she was grateful when staff at the Wilder Foundation found it and contacted her. She got the baby book back. (Courtesy of Susanna Parents)

A bag stolen from an Inver Grove Heights woman’s vehicle didn’t have money or credit cards in it, but a book inside was irreplaceable.

It was Susanna Parent’s 10-month-old son’s baby book, which included ultrasound photos, his newborn footprints and more. “I was devasted,” she said Monday.

Some people told Parent she should be hopeful and maybe it would turn up. “That was something I wanted to believe in, but didn’t really think would be a reality,” she said.

But it was.

Staff at the Wilder Foundation in St. Paul — near the site of the theft — found Parent’s bag, which was discarded by their loading dock, and the baby book was still inside. They used information from inside the bag to track down Parent.

The theft happened last Tuesday morning, when Parent brought her 4-year-old to a swimming lesson off University Avenue and Lexington Parkway in St. Paul. She locked a passenger door, believing that she was locking all the doors, but it turned out the other doors were unlocked.

Parent later realized her laptop bag had been stolen from her vehicle. She hadn’t brought her laptop with her that day (there was nothing of monetary value in the bag), but she and her daughter had been working that morning on filling out her youngest son’s baby book and it was in the bag. She filed a police report.

“I was just hoping and praying that somehow, someway it would get returned,” she said. “I knew it would have been a miracle for it to actually turn up.”

Letters that Parent had received were in her bag. Two front desk employees at the Wilder Foundation, Connie and Pazao, found Parent’s information on the envelopes. They tried sending messages to Parent and her husband on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Wilder’s property administrator, Tammi, searched Parent’s name online and discovered she’s a freelance writer. That helped her locate an email address.

Parent received an email telling her they’d found her bag, and Parent wrote back. She went to the Wilder Foundation, brought pastries as a “thank you” and met the people who’d helped her. Tammi asked that the workers only be identified by their first names.

“What my experience has shown me is … there are people out there that have good intentions and they will go out of their way in order to bless someone and in order to help someone else’s day be better,” Parent said.

Preventing theft from vehicles

There were 675 cases of theft from vehicles reported in St. Paul as of Monday, compared with 703 in the same time period last year, according to St. Paul Police Department data.

Police recommend that people:

Lock their vehicles.
Don’t leave items inside vehicles or ensure items are not visible from the outside.
Park in well-lit areas.

Related Articles

Judge: Fridley man showed no remorse for murdering infant son

Federal prosecutors accuse Woodbury man of extorting minors after coercing explicit images

Jodi Huisentruit case: New billboard, Iowa gathering mark 29 years since disappearance

Fleeing motorcyclist dies week after crashing into State Patrol vehicle in Minneapolis

Arden Hills bar owner admits to hiding gun after his friend fatally shot man

Minnesota locked up its head coach for the foreseeable future on Monday, inking Chris Finch to a four-year extension.

The Timberwolves announced the agreement as a “multi-year” deal. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowksi revealed the exact length. Finch is signed with the Wolves through the 2027-28 campaign.

“I’d like to thank Glen, Becky, and the entire organization for their continued support and commitment to me and the team,” Finch said in a statement. “I’m proud of the way we’ve been able to establish a great culture here with the Timberwolves, and I look forward to continuing to lead this organization and make our fans proud.”

Finch — who took over the team in the middle of the 2020-21 campaign — is fresh off guiding Minnesota to its first Western Conference Finals appearance in 20 years. In three full seasons with Finch at the helm, the Wolves have yet to miss the playoffs.

In his tenure, he has overseen the development of Anthony Edwards from rookie to superstardom. He has succeeded with multiple different roster constructions, most recently maneuvering Minnesota’s “big ball” approach — which required tact to thrive on both ends of the floor — to a 56-win campaign.

Over the final 46 games of the 2021-22 campaign, the Wolves sported the NBA’s top offensive rating under Finch. This season, they touted what many felt was a historically good defense. The coach has shown himself to be adaptable to the personnel around him.

Finch has also proven to be a leader who will be up front and honest with every player, from Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns on down, which creates a roster-wide respect for the bench boss.

Finch and his staff — a tight-knit group that’s largely remained the same since Finch’s first offseason on the job — coached the Western Conference all-star team last season and finished third in NBA Coach of the Year voting. At this point, he’s as much a part of the team’s long-term core as Edwards.

The coach ruptured his patellar tendon in Game 4 of the first round of the playoffs after colliding with guard Mike Conley on the sidelines, which forced him to a second-row seat for the remainder of the postseason. He’s fully expected to again be stalking the sidelines at the start of next season.

“Chris is a wonderful coach, and an even better person,” Wolves basketball boss Tim Connelly said in a statement. “We are thrilled that he is being rewarded with a well-earned extension. Under his guidance the team has improved every year, he’s the perfect leader for our organization.”

A handcuffed Aaron Michael Orlando Rathke spun around in his courtroom chair slowly several times Monday as he waited to be sentenced for murdering his 5-month-old son in their Fridley home.

At other times before the hearing, Rathke leaned back and rocked his chair. When his family walked into the Anoka County courtroom, the 24-year-old looked back at them and smiled.

Aaron Michael Orlando Rathke (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)

Rathke let out a yawn as Judge Suzanne Brown called his case — and again shortly after she sentenced him to 25½ years in prison for killing Kaiden Michael Rathke, who died of blunt-force injuries on March 1, 2023.

Brown had asked Rathke if he wanted to address the court. “Nope,” he replied.

Rathke entered an Alford plea last month to second-degree intentional murder as part of a plea agreement, which included the length of his prison term. An Alford plea means he maintained his innocence while acknowledging the prosecution likely had enough evidence to convict him.

Despite the plea, Brown noted Monday, Rathke admitted to conduct that would have harmed the child, who she said had both “healing” and “fresh” injuries.

“It is disappointing not to see any remorse from you in the PSI (presentence investigation) or now,” Brown said before handing down the sentence.

Baby’s mother: Dad choked him

Rathke and Ahnisah Simone Waters drove their child to the Fridley police department after the boy stopped breathing. He did not have a pulse. Officers began CPR and the child was taken to Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a half-hour later.

According to the charges, Rathke told police that he took the baby into a bedroom to change his diaper. He said the infant vomited and stopped breathing. He said he did chest compressions but they were unsuccessful.

They did not call 911, he said, because in other cases when the baby had stopped breathing they had been able to “bring him back,” the charges say.

He said the child would sometimes have trouble breathing or “forget to breathe” and it had been happening since the baby was 4 months old. He said he would do chest compressions with his fingers to get the baby to breathe again.

During further questioning, Rathke told detectives that the baby was a quiet child who would “holler” if he was picked up or touched. He described changing the baby’s diaper by saying “it was hell” and that the baby would “scream his lungs out.”

Rathke said he’d been diagnosed as bipolar, “which results in him getting angry and having ‘mini outbursts’ and ‘blank out,’” where he is unable to remember things. He denied having any of those behaviors with his son.

Less than a week later, Rathke gave another statement to police saying he may have hugged the baby “a little too hard,” adding that he always gave the boy big hugs because “that way, I wouldn’t lose it.”

Later, detectives learned that Waters had sent a message to a friend through Snapchat saying that Rathke had “killed the baby.”

Waters then told police that Rathke had killed their child, saying she had been afraid to tell police what really happened because Rathke had been abusive to her. She said she saw him choke the child when he was 3 months old, and that when she intervened, he pushed her away. She said he told her he would put pressure on his son’s throat to make him pass out when he was having trouble getting him to go to sleep.

‘Devastated’

No one gave a victim impact statement at Rathke’s sentencing.

Prosecutor Brenda Sund said the child “suffered a tremendous amount of harm” during his young life and that she hopes Rathke “reflects on his actions” during incarceration.

“The state is devastated about (Kaiden),” she said.

As Rathke was being led out of the courtroom by a deputy, he nodded at a family member, who blew him a kiss.

Related Articles

After baby book stolen from vehicle in St. Paul, ‘miracle’ returns it to family

Federal prosecutors accuse Woodbury man of extorting minors after coercing explicit images

Jodi Huisentruit case: New billboard, Iowa gathering mark 29 years since disappearance

Fleeing motorcyclist dies week after crashing into State Patrol vehicle in Minneapolis

Arden Hills bar owner admits to hiding gun after his friend fatally shot man

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office will replace its mobile command vehicle next year with a new $1.1 million vehicle from LDV Custom Specialty Vehicles.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners last week approved a contract with the Burlington, Wis., company. The contract, which totals $1,076,140 over 24 months, will be funded with public safety aid ($850,000) and the county’s 2024 contingency fund ($226,140), county officials said.

The sheriff’s office’s current mobile command vehicle was purchased in 2011 for $250,000 and is nearing the end of its life, said Cmdr. Andy Ellickson of the sheriff’s office. Public works staff say the vehicle requires replacement due to current and future mechanical failures associated with the vehicle’s age, he said.

The new command center is an MT55 Freightliner, which is “much more beefed-up” than the old one,” he said. “It has a hood that can flip up, which makes it easier to work on,” he said. “The one we have now is a ‘cab over camper’ design. It doesn’t have a hood, which means maintenance is troublesome.”

The mobile command vehicle is used by all public-safety agencies in the county during small- and large-scale events, including critical incidents, training and community events, Ellickson said.

The vehicle should be completed and delivered in 12 to 18 months, he said.

Related Articles

St. Paul awaits ‘major flood stage’ river crest of about 20 feet Friday; Stillwater prepares for Sunday crest

As rivers rise, Stillwater and St. Paul prepare for flooding

Newport: Updated park for kids now open, next up is one for Fido

Ramsey County Board chair Trista Martinson stepping down to lead Ramsey, Washington waste-to-energy facility

Oakdale child care center reeling after theft of bounce house