Man who caused $500K worth of damage at Tousley Motorsports sentenced to probation

The man responsible for driving a stolen UTV through Tousley Motorsports on Christmas Day last year and causing up to $500,000 in damage has learned his sentencing.

Austin Michael Erickson, 31, was sentenced on Friday to three years of supervised probation and must pay just over $94,000 in restitution. A one-year prison sentence was stayed for three years and he was also sentenced to Ramsey County Jail for 221 days but had credit for time served.

Erickson was convicted on one count of first-degree damage to property but had one count of second-degree burglary and one count of theft-driving a motor vehicle without owner’s consent dismissed.

As previously reported, Ramsey County court documents say around 6:20 a.m. on Dec. 25, 2023, deputies responded to a glass break alarm at the store.

A probable cause statement says the arriving deputies spotted a person inside on security cameras — and that the suspect was crashing a stolen UTV into merchandise and fixtures inside the store.

At one point, the papers say Erickson drove directly toward a deputy on the scene.

The statement says in a post-Miranda interview, the 30-year-old said he had been accompanied by a friend and used a trailer hitch to break inside the business. It goes on to say Erickson says his friend talked him into doing the burglary and thefts.

The court papers say deputies captured Erickson after he ran away into a nearby wooded area.