{"id":20041,"date":"2026-02-24T05:12:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=20041"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:12:12","slug":"east-grand-forks-stolen-car-found-at-burger-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/east-grand-forks-stolen-car-found-at-burger-king\/","title":{"rendered":"East Grand Forks: Stolen Car Found at Burger King"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>East Grand Forks, Polk County<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 Police say they found a man in a stolen car. The car was in a restaurant lot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Michael Jason Morgal<\/strong>, 43, of Conway, South Carolina, is charged in Polk County. He faces felony receiving stolen property.<\/p>\n<h2>What the police say happened<\/h2>\n<p>Police got the stolen vehicle report around 9:29 p.m. on February 15, 2026. The complaint says the theft happened in Grand Forks, North Dakota.<\/p>\n<p>The vehicle was a 2006 white Chevrolet Cobalt, police say. The complaint says it was taken from a grocery store parking lot.<\/p>\n<p>About 15 minutes later, officers found the car in East Grand Forks. It was parked at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps?q=926+Central+Ave+NW,+East+Grand+Forks,+MN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Burger King, 926 Central Avenue NW<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Police say one person was in the driver\u2019s seat. Officers identified him as Morgal.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint says Morgal admitted to taking the car in downtown Grand Forks. Police say he drove over the Kennedy Bridge into Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>Police say Morgal told them he was trying to reach Crookston. The complaint says he did not know the owner.<\/p>\n<p>He told officers he \u201cjust picked the vehicle,\u201d the complaint states. Police say he stopped to check if it ran well.<\/p>\n<p>Officers contacted the registered owner, the complaint says. Police say the owner said Morgal had no permission.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20043\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20043\" style=\"width: 201px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20043\" src=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Michael-Jason-Morgal.png\" alt=\"Michael Jason Morgal\" width=\"201\" height=\"257\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20043\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Jason Morgal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Court and bail<\/h2>\n<p>Morgal appeared in Polk County District Court after the arrest. Judge Jon A. Maturi set bail with several options.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$200 cash bail with conditions<\/li>\n<li>$2,000 non-cash bond with conditions<\/li>\n<li>$10,000 bond without conditions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The charge is an accusation. Morgal is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alleged offense date:<\/strong> February 15, 2026.<br \/>\n<strong>Court filing date:<\/strong> February 17, 2026.<\/p>\n<h2>More information<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/publicaccess.courts.state.mn.us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Minnesota Judicial Branch case search<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.revisor.mn.gov\/statutes\/cite\/609.52\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Minnesota theft law (includes receiving)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.co.polk.mn.us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Polk County, Minnesota<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019m Chris Harper reporting for <a href=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>East Grand Forks, Polk County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 Police say they found a man in a stolen car. The car was in a restaurant lot. Michael Jason Morgal, 43, of Conway, South Carolina, is charged in Polk County. He faces felony receiving stolen property. What the police say happened Police got the stolen vehicle report around&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/east-grand-forks-stolen-car-found-at-burger-king\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">East Grand Forks: Stolen Car Found at Burger King<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[9415,13832,257,13830,772,819,947,820,2546,457,1124,13833,9416,13831,1025,2161,4413,1786,3070,2912,786],"class_list":["post-20041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-burger","tag-burger-king","tag-car","tag-chevrolet-cobalt","tag-crime","tag-east","tag-east-grand-forks","tag-forks","tag-found","tag-grand","tag-grand-forks-north-dakota","tag-kennedy-bridge","tag-king","tag-michael-jason-morgal","tag-minnesota-court-records","tag-polk-county-district-court","tag-polk-county-minnesota","tag-receiving-stolen-property","tag-stolen","tag-stolen-vehicle","tag-trf-news","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20045,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041\/revisions\/20045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}