Tag: theft
Florida man rich enough to buy private island busted for shoplifting
A wealthy Florida Keys man found the dough for an $8 million island off Key West –but was apparently too cheap to cough up the cash for household items he stole them from Kmart, according to reports.
Andrew Francis Lippi, 59, the owner of the Key Haven “Real World” house used in 2006 for the 17th season of the MTV reality series, was arrested on a charge of grand theft over the weekend just days after he purchased the luxe 4.9-acre Thompson Island of Monroe County, The Miami Herald reported.
According to the news outlet, Lippi had swiped $300 worth of goods that included a Keurig coffeemaker, a Hamilton Beach coffeemaker, eight light bulbs and a bed skirt from a Key West Kmart.
Sometime between March 30 and April 5, Lippi bought the wares from the big box department store and then returned the original packaging boxes with other items packed inside, The Miami Herald reported, citing a police report.
Cops say Lippi put a basketball in the Keurig box instead of the $165 coffeemaker, put old light bulbs in the box for the bulbs, and put a pillowcase in the packaging instead of the bed skirt.
The Hamilton Beach coffeemaker was swapped out with an older model, according to the report.
Lippi denied the allegations to The Miami Herald but refused to go into detail.
“Basically it has to do with a commercial dispute,” Lippi said. “I will say this, that the way it was handled by Key West police and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department was wonderful. Some of the finest people I’ve ever dealt with who were kind throughout the whole process.”
When asked about the theft accusation, Lippi said: “It’s very complicated and I’d rather not get into it.”
He added that he purchased the bed skirt from Kmart, but when he got home the pillowcase was inside.
According to cops, Kmart handed over security footage to authorities that showed Lippi with a cart that had the bed skirt in it, the report said.
A week before Lippi’s Saturday arrest, he bought Thompson Island from philanthropist Edward B. Knight.
The island, which is connected to A1A in Key West by a land bridge, is the only private island with direct access to Key West.
The lavish island compound features four bedrooms, six bathrooms, a caretaker’s cottage, a four-car garage and views of the Atlantic Ocean, according to an online listing.
Lippi was released from the Stock Island Detention Center the morning after his arrest, according to the report.
His arraignment is scheduled for April 18.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/09/florida-man-rich-enough-to-buy-private-island-busted-for-shoplifting/
County employee accused of stealing $1.2 million worth of fajitas over 9 years
A former Texas county employee has been arrested for stealing $1.2 million worth of fajita meat.
Gilberto Escaramilla was fired from his Cameron County Juvenile Justice Department job in August. He was arrested for felony theft after a search warrant turned up packages of county-funded fajitas inside his refrigerator, according to Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz.
Escaramilla has acknowledged stealing packages of the food for nine years. An audit of vendor invoices showed Escaramilla intercepted food deliveries being made to the department.
“He would literally, on the day he ordered them, deliver them to customers he already had lined up,” Saenz told The Brownsville Herald. “We’ve been able to uncover two of his purchasers and they are cooperating with the investigation.”
How’d Escaramilla get caught after a nine-year run? He had a medical appointment and missed a day of work in August and a delivery driver called about the 800 pounds of fajitas he needed to deliver.
However, the Juvenile Department doesn’t serve Tex-Mex. A woman told the driver they don’t serve fajitas, but the driver insisted he’d been delivering them there for nine years.
Escaramilla showed up for work the next day, was confronted and admitted what he’d been doing, according to investigators.
“If it wasn’t so serious, you’d think it was a Saturday Night Live skit,” Saenz said. “But this is the real thing.”