BELMONT — Belmont police investigating burglaries and vehicle thefts last week discovered something unexpected last week — a one-pot methamphetamine lab.

As a result, a 32-year-old Potosi man was arrested Thursday.

Mitchell R. Engebretson faces tentative charges of manufacture of methamphetamine and disposal of methamphetamine manufacturing waste, both felonies, according to the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office. 

Engebretson had not been charged as of Tuesday morning. He is in the Lafayette County Jail, according to online court records.

The meth lab was discovered Thursday around 10:30 a.m. during a search in the Dawn Vista Terrace trailer park. Belmont police and Lafayette County detectives were investigating two burglaries last week when the meth lab was discovered during a consent search, according to Belmont police chief Kurt Malott.

Malott called the discovery “very dangerous stuff. … Some of that stuff can be deadly.”

Engebretson was arrested by Platteville police after an Attempt to Locate bulletin was issued, Malott said.

The state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation assisted with the evidence. A Chicago hazardous materials team cleaned up the scene.

Engebretson was arrested for possession of narcotic drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia in Grant County in 2014, but those charges were dismissed before he made his first court appearance, according to court records.

Engebretson was sentenced in Grant County to 3½ years in prison and two years extended supervision in February 2012 on 17 counts of misappropriating an ID to obtain money in three separate cases. He also has previous convictions for criminal trespass and misdemeanor theft in Iowa County in 2012, burglary in Grant County in 2011, credit fraud in Grant County in 2009, and unlawful phone use threatening harm in Lafayette County in 2009.