GILROY
– Robert Lippert appeared to have been using an Eagle Ridge
construction site as his own personal home improvement store.
Sheriff’s detectives arrested Lippert, 35, after serving a
search warrant at his house Thursday morning on Calle Cielo, off
Watsonville Road in the hills northwest of Gilroy.
GILROY – Robert Lippert appeared to have been using an Eagle Ridge construction site as his own personal home improvement store.
Sheriff’s detectives arrested Lippert, 35, after serving a search warrant at his house Thursday morning on Calle Cielo, off Watsonville Road in the hills northwest of Gilroy. There they found many items they suspect are stolen, but some of the more ostentatious ones were verified as hot property.
Erected around Lippert’s swimming pool were four tall, decorative streetlights. In his barn were a set of iron gates.
Representatives from Shapell Industries, the developer behind the Eagle Ridge gated community, told detectives these were the same gates and lampposts stolen earlier this year from a new Eagle Ridge development on Winged Foot Drive, in the foothills near the intersection of Miller Avenue and Santa Teresa Boulevard.
They were clearly thrilled to get them back.
“They’re definitely ours,” Shapell construction superintendent Scott Tilley told a detective. “I thought we’d never see them again.”
Lippert was on bail at the time of the arrest for a previous charge of possession of stolen property after the Regional Auto Theft Task Force served a search warrant at his house more than a year ago, Quiñonez said. Now he will probably face a second stolen property charge, plus another felony for committing a felony while on bail.
Shapell told Gilroy police about the theft of the four streetlights, worth $4,000 each, in March. The gates, worth $6,700, were reported stolen June 21.
“It’s very, very unusual that we ever recover anything that is stolen from one of our construction sites, and (such theft) does happen all the time,” Shapell Division Manager Chris Truebridge said. “We really appreciate the efforts of the sheriff’s department on following up on this and would maybe submit this for the ‘dumbest criminals’ TV show for inclusion.”
According to an account given by Detective Julian Quiñonez, who led the investigation, Lippert was caught partly because he wanted an assault-with-a-deadly-weapon charge brought against his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend, who allegedly punched him in the eye last week. The alleged assault took place in front of Lippert’s house.
On July 22, a sheriff’s deputy came to Lippert’s house to interview him and noticed the large lampposts around the pool. He thought they were odd and mentioned them to Quiñonez when he returned to the San Martin substation, suggesting Quiñonez find out whether any streetlights had been reported stolen.
Shortly afterward, deputies arrested the suspect in the assault, who was still angry at Lippert and told them Lippert had stolen the lampposts from Eagle Ridge.
Quiñonez confirmed with Gilroy Detective John Marfia that Eagle Ridge had reported the lampposts stolen and then drove out to the house, where he managed to photograph the tall lamps from the road. He then submitted a search warrant request with the Superior Court.
“I’ve got to commend our patrol deputy for seeing something out of the ordinary,” Quiñonez said.
Detectives expressed suspicion that many other items on Lippert’s property were stolen. In his garage was a jumble of power tools: at least four chop saws, at least three pressure painters, numerous motorized compressors and two motors for gates – not Eagle Ridge’s, Shapell Superintendent Mike Consiglio said.
Sheriff’s and Gilroy police detectives plan to check items’ serial numbers to see if any of them have been reported stolen, Quiñonez said.
Lippert’s house was surrounded with video surveillance cameras and what appeared to be a large construction zone, complete with a mobile home in his unsodded front yard. The house itself was of a modest style, but it was filled with some expensive amenities: a Hum-Vee and two Harley-Davidsons in the garage, an expensive industrial stove and refrigerator in the kitchen.
Detectives found a bag full of empty sample packages of Diazepam, a depressant used to treat insomnia. Lippert’s father works with pharmaceuticals, Quiñonez said, although he didn’t know whether Lippert himself had a job.
Lippert asserted his right to remain silent to deputies, Quiñonez said.
Deputies also arrested Lippert’s girlfriend, Angie Ruddach, 31, of San Juan Bautista, on an outstanding warrant for misdemeanor traffic violations. A man found sleeping in a vehicle outside was checked for warrants and released.
Detectives did not find four gold-colored eagles that had been mounted atop each lamppost, but the Shapell superintendents said these could have easily been screwed off in an attempt to hide where the lampposts came from.
“I hope they find those eagles,” Tilley told Consiglio while waiting as detectives searched Lippert’s house. “That would really put the nail in the coffin.”
