A St. Paul man identified as a researcher at the University of Minnesota has been charged with running a different kind of lab -- an illegal meth lab -- in a St. Paul storage facility.

Police were called to the Minikahda Storage facility on Hunting Valley Road on Friday by a man who said a friend of his had stolen his tools, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. The officers smelled a chemical odor coming from one of the units, and then the door to that unit suddenly opened and "they saw a full methamphetamine lab in plain view," according to the criminal complaint.

The man who opened the door, Matthew Lee Krause, 30, was charged Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court with manufacturing methamphetamine, according to the Pioneer Press.

Krause's friend told police that Krause had "cooked methamphetamine in a lab on campus in the past and had stolen a lot of property from the university, including chemicals," the complaint said.

The University of Minnesota's website lists Krause as a research assistant in the plant biology department. University spokesman Chuck Tombarge told the Star Tribune Tuesday that Krause was last enrolled at the school in the spring of 2013 and did not earn a degree from the U.

Some of the chemicals found in the storage locker tested positive for meth. Police found a quantity of pseudoephedrine, a stimulant used to make meth, in Krause's vehicle, along with a set of master keys for the University of Minnesota, according to the Pioneer Press.

Krause rented four other lockers at the storage center, police said.