Dubuque Man Who Stole Thousands of Dollars’ Worth of Brass Sentenced to Federal Prison

A man who repeatedly stole pallets of valuable brass ingot to sell for scrap was sentenced on August 21, 2026, to two years in federal prison.

Dennis Lee Maas, age 54, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after a March 20, 2026, guilty plea to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods.

Information from a plea agreement and sentencing showed that Maas worked as a janitor at a manufacturing company in Dubuque. His job did not include handling pallets of brass ingot that the manufacturing company used for its business. From November 2024 through September 2025, Maas repeatedly stole pallets of brass ingot from his employer. He sold the brass to a metals business in East Dubuque, Illinois, for scrap value. The total value of the brass that he stole was more than $64,000. The metals business was able to return one pallet of brass to the manufacturing company after Maas's thefts were discovered.

Maas was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Maas was sentenced to twenty-four months' imprisonment. He was ordered to make $43,845.16 in restitution to the employer and an insurance company. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Maas is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by the Dubuque Police Department.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.plLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..

The case file number is 26-CR-1048. Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.