Joseph Konopka

In 2002, Konopka, then 25, was arrested by the University of Illinois at Chicago police while trespassing in the steam tunnel system beneath the UIC east campus. The arresting officers found a small vial of white powder in Konopka’s possession; tests indicated the powder was sodium cyanide. The subsequent investigation revealed that Konopka had been hoarding potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide in an unused Chicago Transit Authority storeroom in the Chicago 'L' Blue Line subway.[9] Konopka had picked the locks on several doors in the tunnels, then changed the locks so that he could access the unused rooms freely. Konopka had briefly associated with a Chicago-area urban exploration group in order to obtain information on how to access the large network of unused tunnels and abandoned rooms in Chicago's transit system as well as to lure juveniles to help him.[10] The cyanide had been stolen from a shuttered warehouse, formerly owned by a water treatment company at 48th and Halsted on Chicago's South Side.[11][12] Konopka was also found in possession of numerous keys, which allowed him access to tunnels and rooms not just at the CTA, but also Metra, the Chicago wastewater treatment system, buildings at University of Illinois at Chicago and other city infrastructure buildings.[12]

On March 12, 2003, Konopka was sentenced to 13 years in prison for hiding cyanide in a Chicago subway tunnel. When asked by U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen why he had gone on his vandalism spree, Konopka stated, "I have several reasons, but no real good reason."[12] Defense attorney Matthew Madden claimed Konopka's behavior "stems from an abnormal maturation process." He argued that normal adults "realize you can't participate in the destruction of property for your own entertainment — that's just not acceptable."[13]

In 2004, Judge Lynn S. Adelman sentenced Konopka to 21 years in prison for conspiring to knock out power lines, burn buildings, and damage computers in Wisconsin. Konopka was also ordered to pay more than $435,000 in restitution to victims.[6]

On June 1, 2005, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, overturned the earlier arson and vandalism convictions, saying a federal judge should have let him withdraw his guilty plea before he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.[14] Konopka pleaded guilty again and was sentenced to an additional seven years.[4]

Konopka served the majority of his sentence at ADX Florence before being transferred to Chicago MCC just a few months before his release. He was then placed in the Chicago Residential Reentry Management Facility. He was released in 2019. In November of that year Konopka was interviewed by WGN Investigates reporters, stated he would not resume his prior activities and expressed interest in pursuing White Hat hacking as a career.[12]