Animosity between neighbors has landed a Minnesota man in serious legal trouble. Vincent Ardolf of Blaine, Minn., is facing decades in prison after pleading guilty to hacking his neighbor's WiFi, distributing child pornography, and threatening the Vice President of the United States.
Ardolf halted his trial on December 17 by admitting to these crimes. He confessed to two counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of possession of child pornography, distribution of child pornography, unauthorized access to a protected computer, and making threats against Vice President Joe Biden.
Authorities revealed that in February 2009, Ardolf hacked into his neighbor’s WiFi and created multiple Yahoo email accounts under his neighbor’s name. On May 6, 2009, he used one of these accounts to send an email to Biden’s office. The email read:
“This is a terrorist threat! Take this seriously. I hate the way you people are spending money you don't have... I'm assigning myself to be judge, jury, and executioner. Since you folks have spent what you don't have, it's time to pay the ultimate price. Time for new officials after you all are put to death by us…”
This threatening email was also sent to the governor of Minnesota and a U.S. senator from the state. Ardolf signed the email with his neighbor's name, hoping it would be traced back to them.
The Pioneer Press identified Ardolf's neighbors as Minneapolis attorney Matthew Kostolnik and his wife, Bethany. Ardolf's animosity reportedly began in August 2008 after the couple accused him of kissing their 4-year-old son and called the police. Although officers questioned Ardolf, no charges were filed related to the incident.
Besides the threatening email, Ardolf confessed to sending sexual emails to Matthew Kostolnik's coworkers from the fake accounts, including one with a pornographic image of a child. He also created a MySpace page using Kostolnik's name and posted the same image.
Ardolf now faces severe penalties. He could receive up to 20 years in prison for distributing child pornography, 10 years for possessing child pornography, and five years each for unauthorized computer access and making threats against the vice president. Additionally, he faces a mandatory two-year minimum sentence for each count of aggravated identity theft.
