A sub-contractor duo working on a customer’s home wound up subtracting from the property rather than improving it by stealing very expensive plants.
On September 25, 2017, the Cape Coral Police Department received a call in which sub-contractors renovating a house had stolen two Staghorn Fern plants from the property valued at $1,500 each. This was captured on the home’s surveillance system.
A Staghorn Fern. Flickr Photo by Ryan SommaThe next day on the 26th, the victim re-contacted police when the same workers returned to the property to continue renovations. Contact was made with the pair, identified as Diego Varela-Fernandez (DOB: 9-4-79) and Jose Carmenate-Lopez (DOB: 10-22-71) and they were both arrested and charged with one count each of grand theft. Varela-Fernandez and Carmenate-Lopez were transported to the Lee County Jail.
ARRESTED: Diego Varela-Fernandez, W/M, DOB: 4-9-79, of 4637 SW 28th St, Lehigh Acres FL.
CHARGES: Grand Theft
ARRESTED: Jose Luis Carmenate-Lopez, W/M, DOB: 10-22-71, of 1120 Fifth Ave, Lehigh Acres FL.
CHARGES: Grand Theft
