An electrician who worked for the Metropolitan Airports Commission was charged with stealing thousands of dollars worth of copper wire for five years, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.

Kipp Baldwin, 59, of Bloomington, was charged with one count of theft by swindle after he allegedly stole at least $125,000 worth of copper wire. According to the criminal complaint, someone told the Airport Police Department in October that they suspected Baldwin of stealing copper from contractors hired to do work at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

When reviewing Baldwin's badge use and surveillance footage, investigators learned that although Baldwin worked Monday through Friday, he would often come to work on the weekend. According to the complaint, whether during the week or on weekends, he would always drive the same airports commission truck from the trades building to locations throughout the airport.

Last year, the airport underwent a project that required replacing all types of wiring, heating and air conditioning systems and other piping. Hunt Electric was one of the hired contractors. According to officials, airport commission electricians, like Baldwin, do not work on those projects.

However, both during the work week and on the weekend, Baldwin would take the scrap wire, remove the insulation and hide the wire in boxes until he could remove it. According to the complaint, in one instance, he put on an orange reflective vest that said "HUNT" on the back, put on a hardhat and carried a spool of wire used by Hunt employees and then moved a large cart with boxes out the door to where his truck was parked.

The complaint states that Baldwin would regularly take the wire and other metal to United Milwaukee, a scrap metal facility. Police obtained records from United Milwaukee Scrap and from two banks where Baldwin had checking accounts.The records indicated that from March 2015 through November 2019, Baldwin delivered metals to United Milwaukee 70 times and was paid $145,722s.

Other records indicate Baldwin has 10 retirement counts in his name worth $1.3 million and that he has been taking scrapped metal materials to various scrap companies since 1995.