K-9 unit finds Boyceville truck thief hiding in hay bales

By LeAnn R. Ralph

BOYCEVILLE  —  It all started February 21 when the Dunn County sheriff’s department received a report of a pickup truck stolen from the Village of Boyceville.

The incident ended several days later when the sheriff department’s K-9 officer located the suspect hiding in a pile of round bales at a farm on county Highway F — and the truck’s owner and a passenger also were taken into custody for firing rounds from handguns at the owner’s own stolen truck.

According to a news release from the Dunn County sheriff’s department, after the report had been received about the truck stolen from Boyceville, reports were received regarding various locations of the truck in both Dunn County and Barron County.

At 7:21 p.m. February 22, the sheriff’s department received information from an individual who said that Cody Metzger and a female passenger wanted to hide the stolen truck at the individual’s residence.

Dunn County deputies responded, and at 7:29 p.m., the deputy reported that he was with the stolen vehicle and two other vehicles at state Highway 64 and 390th Street in the Town of Sheridan north of Boyceville.

The operator of the stolen vehicle had fled on foot, and the deputy asked for K-9 assistance, according to the news release.

Dunn County Deputy M. Spenle and K-9 Chief began tracking the suspect, and at around 9:20 p.m. last Wednesday, Cody A. Metzger, age 30, was discovered hiding in a pile of round bales at a farm on county Highway F.

Metzger was taken into custody without incident and was subsequently charged with operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent along with a probation hold.

Online court records list a Clear Lake address for Metzger.

According to online court records, Metzger pleaded no contest in Dunn County Circuit Court on February 6 of this year and was found guilty of knowingly violating a domestic abuse injunction.

Judge Rod Smeltzer withheld sentence and placed Metzger on two years of probation. As a condition of probation Metzger was ordered to serve 90 days in jail or complete 180 hours of community service within the first year. Metzger also was ordered to have no contact with Fleet Farm and several individuals. 

Metzger’s passenger, Paige M. Rainey, 22, also was taken into custody where the stolen vehicle was located for operating a vehicle without the owner’s consent and also for a probation hold, according to the news release.

A search of the online court records revealed no cases statewide in Wisconsin listing Paige Rainey as a defendant.

During the course of their follow-up investigation, Dunn County deputies discovered that two men, the owner of the stolen vehicle, Robert J. Fawcett, age 22, and the passenger of the vehicle driven by the stolen vehicle’s owner, David W. Becker, age 27, had followed and pursued Fawcett’s stolen vehicle and had both fired several rounds from handguns from their moving vehicle at Fawcett’s stolen vehicle. “They had then boxed in and struck the stolen vehicle prior to law enforcement’s arrival,” according to the news release.

Fawcett and Becker were both taken into custody and were initially charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety.