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Duluth, Minn. (AP)

Exercise ball fetish leads to burglary in Duluth

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It may have been a self-professed fetish for slashing large rubber exercise balls that led a Duluth man to break into medical building Duluth in May.

Thirty-one-year-old Christopher Neil Bjerkness pleaded guilty on Wednesday in St. Louis County District Court to third-degree burglary.

He was charged after someone broke into the SMDC-Duluth Clinic West building on May 30 and slashing the exercise balls there.

The plea agreement calls for Bjerkness to spend a year at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center and participate in a sex offender treatment program.

Bjerkness told Duluth police he slashed the rubber balls to satisfy a sexual urge. He tells the Duluth News Tribune that he can't explain his fetish but says he suffers from other mental disorders.

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

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)