Local Family Laments Theft of Vehicle From Outskirts of Grand Marais

GRAND MARAIS – Residents of America’s “coolest small town” ar­en’t accustomed to auto theft. That’s for the big cities. Or video games.

That narrative changed last week­end when the Cook County Sher­iff’s Department reported three ve­hicles were taken from the parking lot of a local auto repair shop in the overnight hours on Aug. 14. Two of the vehicles were “taken for rides and then abandoned,” county offi­cials reported.

A day later, the other vehicle was brought back to the Tire and Auto Lodge, presumably by the people who stole it.

The sheriff’s department had no suspects in the case as of earlier this week. An investigation was ongo­ing as of press time for this news­paper.

Meanwhile, at least one Grand Marais family has been dealing with the frustration of having their car stolen and then returned to the parking lot of Tire and Auto. Alisa Berns is a local business owner. Al­isa and her youngest son, Stirling Pollock, took a 2014 Subaru Lega­cy to the auto shop, which is owned and operated by Cook County resi­dent Odin Jorgenson.

Initially, Pollock brought the car to Tire and Auto for an inspection of possible leaking oil. It turns out what the car needed was new brakes, Jorgenson explained, and the oil situation was run-of-the-mill burn-off for a Subaru. After working on the vehicle late into the afternoon Thursday, Aug. 14, Jor­genson set the car in the parking lot but failed to call Berns or Pollock to let them know it was ready to be picked up. It was a busy day at the shop and Jorgenson had some fami­ly things to get to and simply forgot to let them know it was ready to be picked up, Berns told this reporter Aug. 18.

“It was no big deal, that’s small-town stuff and we didn’t need the car until Friday, so we’re not wor­ried about that,” Berns said.

The keys were likely in the ve­hicle, Berns said, as that has long been a custom at local auto shops in Grand Marais. When this report­er asked Jorgenson Aug. 18 about keys being left in vehicles at the auto shop parking lot he declined to comment for this story.

Pollock, 22, is starting his first ca­reer job this weekend working for a photography and production com­pany in the Twin Cities after gradu­ating from Luther College in Dec­orah, Iowa, earlier this year. He was scheduled to leave Grand Marais Saturday (Aug. 16) after spending a couple weeks back in his home­town before moving to the metro to start work. When Pollock and Berns went to pick up the car Friday af­ternoon, it wasn’t in the parking lot at Tire and Auto. Jorgenson seemed puzzled and called another Cook County resident who owns a similar vehicle, thinking perhaps she’d tak­en it by mistake. She hadn’t. There was no mention of car theft and vandalism at that time.

There’s a scene in the movie The Big Lebowski where The Dude’s (played by actor Jeff Bridges) car gets stolen from the parking lot of a bowl­ing alley. The Dude’s friend Walter (John Goodman) attempts to calm the situation by suggesting the car was towed from the parking lot.

“You (f-ing) know it’s been stolen,” the Dude says.

“Well, certainly that is a possibility,” Wal­ter replies.

Berns and Pollock both say what oc­curred over the ensu­ing 24 hours after they learned the car was stolen was a mixed bag of dealing with insurance companies to find a rental car for Stirling, scattered communication from local law enforce­ment, and confusion over the whereabouts of the missing vehi­cle. Take Saturday, for example, when the mother and son duo drove to Duluth to obtain a rental car after learning the insurance policy would provide up to $100 per day and up to $3,000 for a rental in such a situ­ation. Duluth is the closest place for a rental car for Cook County resi­dents, particularly when insurance is involved, as they require certain companies to issue the vehicles. After renting the car in Duluth, Pol­lock continued on to the Twin Cities so he could start his new job Mon­day, while Berns returned to Grand Marais. Upon returning home, she learned the stolen car had been re­turned (again, likely by the thieves) overnight Friday, one night after it was stolen. Pollock, meanwhile, was just arriving to the Twin Cities in his rental car at the time of this discovery, even though the car was returned hours earlier. There was no communication from law enforce­ment or other parties about the sto­len car being returned to the lot.

Jorgenson later told Berns that the car was back and smelled like gasoline on the inside. There was a plastic tube inside the car com­monly used for siphoning gasoline from vehicles, Berns reported. The thieves also pried open the outside gas flap attached to the vehicle and bent it so they could access the gas tank, even though there is a sim­ple lever inside the vehicle to pop it open. There was also a vape pen left inside the vehicle, Berns said, which law enforcement took for fingerprinting and further anal­ysis in hopes it could reveal the identity of the vandals. In ad­dition to the damaged gas flap, there’s outside damage to the rear driver’s side of the vehicle. There are large dents and white paint or residue on the vehicle, possi­bly from where it collided with a solid structure of some sort or another vehicle.

As the case continues to unfold, there’s security camera footage of the car thieves captured by multiple local businesses, Ber­ns said the sheriff’s department told her. Evidently, she added, there are multiple “detectives” working on the case from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. And while insurance is covering the cost of the rental car for now, there will be re­pairs needed to the damaged vehi­cle, and deductibles to pay.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Of­fice was scant on details about the situation this week, issuing a short press release late Monday afternoon via the county’s public affairs offi­cer in which it said the stolen car was returned Aug. 18, even though it was returned Aug. 16. The press release also lists the license plate of Pollock’s stolen and then returned vehicle for seemingly no reason whatsoever, being that the car was no longer missing.

The theft of a vehicle is unique for Grand Marais, often dubbed “The Coolest Small Town in Amer­ica.” Pollock, who grew up in this town and graduated from Cook County High School, says he was “pretty pissed off for a few days” after his car was stolen, damaged, and then returned to the scene of the crime. Pollock said there’s a histo­ry of degenerate-like behavior from some teens and other young adults in Cook County and that it’s easy to get away with things in an area where law enforcement is minimal.

“This is taking it to a whole new level though,” Pollock said of steal­ing a car.

It’s common in Cook County for people to not lock their car doors, even at night. The same can be said of homes, where some residents es­sentially take a sense of pride in not locking their doors, even if they’re out of town for a few days or lon­ger. It’s the Cook County way, one might say. The same applies to lo­cal businesses, where the auto-re­pair shop is seen as something of an institution as opposed to just being a mechanic. Any parking area in downtown Grand Marais, from the Tire and Auto Lodge to the bustling lot in front of the co-op, are safe places, local reasoning goes. Berns, who has lived in Cook County for 25 years, says this incident doesn’t change her perception of Grand Marais. After all, some “carnies” stole her bike when a traveling cir­cus came to town a few years back, she explained. Things happen. Peo­ple make bad choices sometimes, Berns reasoned.

“When something like this hap­pens, people who did nothing wrong have to navigate and deal with a lot of stuff beyond just the obvious,” Berns said. “All this stuff with insurance and talking to law enforcement and all that. My son is starting this new job and we didn’t need to be dealing with all of this just so someone could take a joy­ride around town.”