EP woman charged with illegal firearm possession

A 42-year-old Eden Prairie woman, Sarah Michelle Dunker, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with unlawful possession of a firearm following a June 6 incident in Eden Prairie .

According to the taxation document:

Eden Prairie Police were dispatched to the Home Depot store on Valley View Road after receiving a report of a theft.

Officers spoke with the store’s loss prevention employee, who said a woman entered the store, placed merchandise in her purse and left the store without paying. When he stopped her outside the store, the woman opened her purse and handed him back some goods before getting into a car.

The store employee thought she had more stolen items on her because he found an empty merchandise package in the store. Officers spotted the car on Valley View Road near Zenith Road in Eden Prairie and stopped it. The woman, identified as Dunker, was sitting in the front passenger seat.

Dunker was arrested after a search of the vehicle for other merchandise revealed a firearm without a serial number in the car’s glove box.

She told police the gun was hers, explaining that she and her son made guns, and admitted that she did not have a license to carry the firearm.

Dunker was taken to the Hennepin County Jail, where she was released later that day.

The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of five years and/or a $10,000 fine.