He Just Bought a Private Island. Cops Say He Stole From Kmart

Andrew Lippi owns a resort that's been used in MTV's Real World and a private island in the Florida Keys that he purchased for $8 million last week. He was also just accused of trying to steal about $300 worth of items from Kmart. ABC News and the Miami Herald report the 59-year-old Key Haven resident was arrested Saturday after police say he bought several items from a Key West Kmart—including a Hamilton Beach coffee maker, a Keurig coffee maker, LED lightbulbs, and a bed skirt—then returned the items for refunds but with other items inside the original packaging. In the case of the Hamilton Beach coffee maker, Lippi replaced it with a "much older coffee maker," per the Key West Police Department, which adds that in the Keurig coffee maker box Lippi returned, a basketball was found.

The lightbulbs were similarly swapped out, and the bed skirt packaging came back with only a pillowcase, the department says. A police report notes these transactions took place between March 30 and April 5. The Herald was able to touch base with Lippi over the phone on Monday, and he said the whole thing has to do with a "commercial dispute" and was "very complicated." "I'd rather not get into it," he said when pressed for details, though he did call the law enforcement officials who were involved "kind" and "some of the finest people I've ever dealt with." Lippi was arrested on grand theft charges and released Sunday, with no bond posted, per jail records. A court date is set for April 18. (Tumblr's odd community of teen shoplifters.)