ST. PAUL, Minn. - A 45-year-old man is charged after police say he broke into a woman's apartment, blocked her from leaving and forced her to sit with him on the couch while he smoked a cigarette and drank a beer.
A criminal complaint filed Wednesday charges George Edward Lowe, of St. Paul, with first-degree burglary, aggravated robbery and kidnapping for an incident on Oct. 18 on the 100 block of 6th Street East.
According to the charges, a woman called 911 to report a man trying to break into an apartment around 2 a.m. Then, several hours later, the woman said she noticed the same man still trying to break in through her peephole and called police.
She told officers a short time later, she heard a woman screaming for help in the hallway. She looked out her peephole and saw a man, identified as Lowe, dragging a woman around the corner of the hall.
When officers arrived, they saw wood shavings on the floor and pry marks on the lock. They knocked on the door but no one responded. As they entered the apartment, they saw Lowe, sitting on the couch smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. A woman was also sitting on the couch crying and hyperventilating.
She told officers she didn't know the man sitting next to her.
In an interview with police, the woman told officers she heard something rattling outside her door and told the man, "You have the wrong apartment. You don't live here."
She said she was about to call police when she heard the sound of a can opening in her kitchen. She walked out and saw Lowe sitting on her couch, drinking beer and looking through her roommate's purse.
She ran towards the door and left the apartment but Lowe caught up to her, grabbed her by her shirt and neck and dragged her back into her apartment. She told authorities he then took her cell phone.
The complaint states Lowe asked the woman for her money and gems. She gave him $40 and he took out a cigarette. She tried to run for the door again but he blocked her and slammed it shut.
Charges say he then dragged her over to the couch and told her to sit with him.
When police knocked on the door, he instructed her to be quiet.
Police interviewed Lowe, who admitted to breaking into the woman's apartment and forcing her to stay with him.
When asked by authorities what would've happened if officers didn't enter the apartment, he said, "I was going to finish drinking my beer and we probably would have made love."
Lowe told police it wasn't his first time assaulting women in that apartment building. He later said, "I own that floor, it's mine."
St. Paul Police have had several encounters with Lowe including incidents on Oct. 7, Oct. 13 and Oct. 14 when he was accused of yelling obscene things toward a woman, allegedly spit in the face of another woman and tackled a woman to the pavement, pinning her to the ground.
He also has prior convictions of robbery, armed robbery, auto theft, theft, criminal sexual conduct and forgery.
