DURAND, Wis. — A rural man called the sheriff that his trail cam showed a likely house burglar wandering in the Chippewa River Bottoms north of Durand. The guy was wearing the caller’s stolen clothes and carrying his stolen rifle, the caller said. A few hours later Pepin County deputies arrested Kyle J. Smith, age 39, at a Durand establishment. This was after a four-hour manhunt in the dense, rough and dangerous Bottoms with drones and sniffer hounds. Smith was charged with burglary, illegal possession of a firearm as a felon, and bail jumping. Sheriff Joel Wener said that at least three properties had been forcibly entered. The sheriff asked everyone who owns property in the Bottoms to check their premises and security cameras.
Smith. In Pepin County jail.