Crime & Safety

SLP Police Arrest Robin Hood for Alleged Theft

The St. Paul man is accused of stealing computers from a St. Louis Park store and having a demagnetizing tool clipped to his belt.

OUTSIDE MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- A St. Paul man with a familiar name has been charged with stealing computers from a St. Louis Park store after making repeated visits to the business.

Robin Hood, 33, is charged with two felonies: theft over $1,000, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, and possession of burglary or theft tools, which has a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, signed by St. Louis Park Police Officer Aaron Balvin, Hood first went to in St. Louis Park on June 7, selected a Gateway desktop computer valued at $700, and left the store without paying for it.

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Store employees were familiar with Hood, who had visited the store many times in the previous week and at one point unsuccessfully tried to steal a laptop computer, the complaint charges.

On June 15, Hood returned to Micro Center, chose a Gateway desktop computer valued at $450, and again left the store without paying for it, employees told police.

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A store employee stopped Hood in the parking lot and asked to see his sales receipt. Hood told the employee that he must have dropped it at the register; he walked back into the store, went into the restroom, removed the gray shirt he was wearing and put on a baseball cap, the complaint says.

Hood left the restroom wearing a red T-shirt, made a small purchase and left. Employees found his gray shirt in the restroom trash can.

When St. Louis Park police arrested Hood in the store parking lot, they found a demagnetizing tool clipped to his belt, the complaint says. The only use for such a device is to disable security sensors often attached to high-dollar items in stores, according to police.

(The complaint doesn’t indicate whether Hood’s intention was to give the allegedly stolen computers to the poor.)

Hood remained in the Hennepin County Jail on Tuesday on a $5,000 bond. He was scheduled to make a first appearance in Hennepin County District Court on Tuesday.


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