Duluth man with exercise ball fetish charged

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) — A Duluth man who has been convicted of slashing dozens of exercise balls to satisfy a bizarre fetish has again been charged with burglary.

A criminal complaint says 33-year-old Christopher Neil Bjerkness told police he need to find a bathroom when he crawled through a window at the Northwoods Chester Creek Academy Sunday. The complaint says a staff member found him near the exercise balls.

Bjerkness has past convictions in 2005, 2006 and 2009 for entering fitness and physical therapy settings where he damaged exercise balls, including the University of Minnesota Duluth’s fitness center where he slashed more than 70 exercise balls with a knife.

Bjerkness told the Duluth News Tribune ( http://bit.ly/l7NLnr) in 2009 he couldn’t explain his fetish. He said he suffered from bipolar depression, fetal alcohol syndrome and cerebral palsy, which was confirmed by his adoptive parents.

Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthsuperior.com