Probation for man who repeatedly broke into Minneapolis police lot, stole evidence from vehicles
A 22-year-old man has been put on probation for repeatedly breaking into the Minneapolis Police Department's forensic garage and stealing or disturbing evidence from numerous vehicles in connection with criminal cases, including one involving a homicide.
Dakoda S. Peplinski, of Minneapolis, was sentenced Thursday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to fleeing police in connection with the series of break-ins from March 10 until his March 22 arrest during a police pursuit.
During his three years on probation, Peplinski must among other requirements abstain from alcohol and illicit drugs, do not possess firearms, undergo a mental health examination and maintain employment. Also as part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed charges of receiving stolen property and theft.
The criminal complaint says Peplinski entered more than two dozen vehicles in all, with most occurring March 10.
The County Attorney's Office said soon after Peplinski was charged that it was communicating with the Minneapolis impound lot and the Minneapolis Police Department about the possibility of criminal cases being impacted. A police spokesman declined to comment about the intrusions into the police lot, which is a separate space within the city impound lot.
According to the criminal complaint and police records:
A police sergeant visited MPD's forensic garage March 15 to search a vehicle as part of a homicide investigation. The sergeant saw items "scattered all around the interior of the vehicle that had not previously been scattered," the charges read.
The sergeant reviewed surveillance video from March 10 that captured Peplinski in the lot for roughly two hours as he rifled through 21 vehicles. He threw items from those vehicles over the chain-link fence, climbed over, gathered up the items and fled.
Surveillance video from March 12 showed Peplinski in the lot for about two hours and entering three vehicles. Again, he pitched items over the fence, climbed over and left with what he stole.
On March 22, Peplinski left the lot through a hole in the fence, carrying a desktop computer with a keyboard and a French horn.
A police squad arrived and pursued Peplinski as he drove off, striking an occupied city vehicle in the process. He was captured in his vehicle about 9 a.m. when an unmarked police vehicle blocked him in the 1500 block of Glenwood Avenue.
A search of the vehicle by police turned up a handgun, ammunition, a designer handbag with fentanyl and an addictive prescription drug used to counter panic attacks.
The complaint also noted that Peplinski was given a trespass notice at the garage on Feb. 2, but the charges offered no further details.
