A 30-year-old Inver Grove Heights man was killed Sunday night when his motorhome caught fire on the side of Interstate 35E in Eagan, authorities said.

The 1988 Southwind motorhome stalled on northbound I-35E at Northwood Parkway about 10:20 p.m. It started on fire and the driver, Steven Robert Tekautz, was not able to get out, the Minnesota State Patrol said.

Tekautz died at the scene.

— Nick Ferraro

Bystander steals car during traffic stop

Police had a driver pulled over Sunday night in St. Paul when a man suddenly jumped in the woman’s vehicle and stole it.

The incident began when an officer saw the driver of a 2015 Lincoln Navigator speeding about 6:10 p.m. near West Seventh Street and Jefferson Avenue and pulled the vehicle over. The officer suspected the driver was intoxicated and began field sobriety testing.

A man, later identified as a 39-year-old, was sitting on a nearby bus bench and got into the driver’s seat of the vehicle, according to criminal charges filed Monday. The officer ran to the vehicle and repeatedly ordered the suspect to stop, but he sped away.

With the assistance of the woman driving the Navigator, police were able to track her phone and other electronic devices in the stolen vehicle via the “Find My” application. The app showed the vehicle in Apple Valley, which is where police found the woman’s phone, which had apparently been thrown from the vehicle.

St. Paul police continued tracking the woman’s AirPods and an Apple AirTag on her key ring, which showed the vehicle at a gas station at Nicollet Avenue and 77th Street in Richfield. When officers arrived, the suspect drove off in the Navigator.

Richfield and Bloomington officers pursued the vehicle and took the suspect into custody at an airport hangar. St. Paul police identified the man as the suspect who stole the Navigator, according to the criminal complaint charging him with auto theft and fleeing police.

The man “showed signs of narcotic intoxication” and police obtained a search warrant for his blood. Results are pending and the complaint said charges against him could be amended.

Police determined the Navigator’s driver was not intoxicated and she was released, according to police. Her vehicle was later returned to her.

— Mara H. Gottfried

Drop box replaced after mayor removed it

An absentee ballot drop box that the mayor of a central Wisconsin city removed a week ago was back in place on Monday.

The Wausau city clerk said the box was available outside of city hall “for residents to submit absentee ballots, payments, and other important city requests as was intended.”

Mayor Doug Diny removed the drop box on Sept. 22 without consulting with the clerk, who has the authority under a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling legalizing drop boxes to make one available. They are not mandatory in the state.

The incident is the latest example in swing state Wisconsin of the fight over whether communities will allow voters to use absentee ballot drop boxes. The Wisconsin Supreme Court in July ruled that drop boxes are legal, but left it up to local communities to decide whether to use them.

More than 60 towns, villages and cities in nine counties have opted out of using the boxes for the presidential election in November, according to a tally by the group All Voting is Local. Drop boxes are being embraced in heavily Democratic cities including Milwaukee and Madison.

Diny has said he wants the full Wausau city council discuss whether one should be offered. Absentee ballots began being mailed to voters on Sept. 19 ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Wausau clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde said in a statement that the box has been secured to the ground in accordance with guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the United States Election Assistance Commission. The box was not attached to the ground when the mayor took it a week ago.

Diny’s action spurred the Marathon County district attorney to request an investigation from the state Department of Justice. The drop box was locked and no ballots were in it when Diny took it, according to both the mayor and city clerk.

Diny, who distributed a photo of himself carting the drop box away, insists he did nothing wrong.

Drop boxes were widely used in 2020, fueled by a dramatic increase in absentee voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 500 drop boxes were set up in more than 430 Wisconsin communities for the election that year, including more than a dozen each in Madison and Milwaukee. Drop boxes were used in 39 other states during the 2022 election, according to the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.

— Associated Press