One suspect, 69 charges in Winnipeg break-ins

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This article was published 27/09/2022 (568 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — Winnipeg police property crime investigators have arrested a man accused in a nine-month spree of break-ins.

Between January and September, more than a dozen residences in the William Whyte neighbourhood and the city’s southeast and southwest were broken into, as were four garages and about a dozen vehicles, the Winnipeg Police Service said Tuesday.

Jewelry, bicycles and two vehicles were stolen, as were wallets with bank and identification cards, police said.

This month alone, police tied the same suspect to seven break-ins.

On Sept. 8 or 9, a man broke into a condo on the 800 block of Waverley Street while the resident was sleeping and stole ID cards and about $10,000 worth of jewellery, police said.

A suspect entered the same Waverley condo complex again Sept. 9, stealing three bikes worth about $2,000 from a garage. Later that same day, a suspect sold about $1,800 worth of jewellery at a Henderson Highway business.

On Sept. 11, at about 7:30 p.m., a suspect made off with a $5,000 bicycle from an underground parkade on the 200 block of Wellington Crescent.

On Sept. 15, a vehicle parked outside a Castlebury Court home was broken into and the garage remote triggered. Another $5,000 bike was stolen, as were tools, police said.

Between Sept. 19 and 21, a suspect busted into a garage on the 700 block of Weatherdon Avenue, where two vehicles worth $65,000 were stolen.

The spree came to a head at about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 21, when officers were called to a possible break-in at an apartment on the 300 block of Stradbrook Avenue.

A man was unloading property from a vehicle into the building when officers arrived, police said. He was arrested.

Property crimes investigators then executed a warrant on a suite in the building, where they seized about $35,000 worth of tools, bicycles, wallets, stolen ID documents and shotgun shells.

Dustin Dean Zorn, 35, was charged with 69 offences related to the break-ins and stolen property.

On Monday, Zorn pleaded guilty to charges laid prior to last week. including: possession of property obtained by crime, break, enter and theft, credit card fraud and other offences, and was sentenced to equivalent of 315 days time served.

Zorn had been on bail since Aug. 3, but was rearrested Sept. 22 (presumably for the new alleged offences). His bail was revoked the next day.

On Monday, court heard Zorn has had “significant struggles” with drugs, particularly methamphetamine. Zorn was previously accepted into the drug treatment court program, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

In February 2019 in The Pas, Zorn pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking and received an 18-month conditional sentence. He was charged four times with violating a variety of sentencing conditions before he was ordered in August 2021 to serve the rest of his sentence in custody.

» Winnipeg Free Press