Hennepin County Man Sentenced​ For Stealing Wire From MSP Airport

St. Louis Park MN

09 March, 2021

2:04 PM

Description

HENNEPIN COUNTY, MN — A Hennepin County electrician will serve 160 days on house arrest and five years on probation after pleading guilty in January to stealing copper wire from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The man, 60-year-old Kipp Baldwin, pleaded guilty to theft by swindle of over $35,000 and filing a fraudulent tax return, the Hennepin County Attorney said in a news release on Tuesday. Baldwin used his access to steal copper and other valuable materials from the airport between 2015 and 2019, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint. During a wiring and HVAC upgrade in 2019, he stole more wiring from the airport. All told, Baldwin made $125,000 from reselling the stolen materials, none of which did he claim on his tax forms, according to the complaint. In addition to house arrest and probation, Baldwin will be required to serve 120 days of Sentence-to-Service time, a structured work program that lets low-risk offenders participate in community improvement and restoration projects. The judge sided with the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which suggested that Baldwin do electrical work as part of the sentence, the attorney said. Baldwin has also been ordered to repay $54,337 to Hunt Electric, $5,946 to Minnesota Department of Revenue and $765 to the Metropolitan Airports Commission.