AURORA | Investigators say a long-time Arapahoe County building inspector used his access to steal a pair of women’s underwear from a home, and they say he may have stolen several pairs of underwear over his 15-year career.
Lambert Leon “Lonnie” Iringan, 65, was arrested last week after a woman whose house was being remodeled told police she caught the inspector rummaging through her underwear drawer.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said his deputies served a search warrant after Iringan’s arrest that turned up several more pairs of women’s undergarments, a discovery that leads investigators to believe Iringan may have regularly stolen underwear from homes he inspected.
“We are going back right now and looking at every residential inspection he was involved in,” Robinson said.
The inspections go back to 1998 when Iringan started working for the county and Robinson called the investigation a “massive undertaking.”
Iringan has been charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor theft stemming from the incident at the woman’s home last week. Per county policy, he has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
In last week’s incident, investigators say the woman was having her basement remodeled and was scheduled to have a county building inspector look at the work Sept. 12.
That morning, the woman said she was sleeping in her bed when she heard someone walk into her bedroom. The person, apparently unaware the woman was asleep in her bed, walked to a dresser and grabbed an undergarment, investigators said. The woman said something to the man and he fled from the room.
Robinson said the incident happened in a home along the Arapahoe Road corridor east of Interstate 25, but declined to be more specific because the woman involved is worried about her privacy.
Deputies later arrested Iringan and he was booked into the Arapahoe County Jail, where he is being held Wednesday in lieu of $50,000 bond, according to jail records. He is due in court Thursday morning.