Duluth Man Charged in Copper Cable Theft Spree
A Duluth man faces four felony charges for allegedly cutting copper cables from power poles in Saint Louis County.
Aaron Alan Horn, 30, of Duluth had been suspected of numerous copper wire thefts where cables owned by CenturyLink were cut from power lines, causing service issues for customers in the area.
According to the criminal complaint, law enforcement obtained a warrant to place a tracker on Horn’s vehicle and were able to link Horn to four different wire thefts between March 9 and April 5, 2023. Police say the GPS data from the tracker matched the time and location of reported service outages by CenturyLink.
On April 6, law enforcement responded to a snowmobile trail in Carlton County, to where Horn’s vehicle was tracked. Officers reported seeing smoke coming from the ground and eventually detained Horn. He told officers he was burning the copper wire taken from one of the incidents the day before. In a statement to police, Horn admitted to cutting one other wire and being in the area of one additional incident, but denied taking any wire from those.
Horn was charged with four counts of damage or theft to telecommunications equipment. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years. Horn made a court appearance Friday and was released with conditions including completion of a chemical assessment and electronic monitoring.
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