Man Charged with Stealing 8,000 Pounds of Wire from Eagan Business

A Burnsville man has been charged with theft after police say he helped a man steal more than 8,000 pounds of stainless-steel wire from an Eagan manufacturing company last year.

Matthew Joseph Galatowitsch, 20, faces a felony charge of theft, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 bond.

According to the criminal complaint, the company’s operations manager called Eagan police on April 22, 2010, to report that sometime early on the morning of April 20, someone crawled under the fence on Dodd Road and rolled or dragged more than 8,000 pounds of 8-gauge and 10-gauge stainless-steel wire, valued at more than $12,000, off the property.

The manager reported two additional thefts of stainless-steel wire on May 2 and May 18, 2010.

A police investigation determined that two men, including Galatowitsch, had been selling 8- and 10-gauge wire to metal scrapyards in the Minneapolis area for several months. The investigation found that Galatowitsch had recycled more than 9,000 pounds of wire at scrapyards between March 22 and May 3, 2010.

Police interviewed Galatowitsch on May 19, 2010. He told police that he had been out in Minneapolis one night and met a man who told him that he used to work at the Eagan company and asked if Galatowitsch would help him retrieve some of his property, according to the complaint.

Galatowitsch told police that helped hold up the fence so the coils of wire could be slid beneath it, and helped load them onto a vehicle, the complaint says.

He said he also went to a scrapyard to recycle the stolen wire with his acquaintance, who gave him about $50 for helping. He admitted to police that he suspected the wire was being stolen when he helped remove it from the company.