South Lake Tahoe council candidate accused of breaking into his ex’s home says a bear is to blame
A candidate for the Tahoe City Council on Tuesday accused a bear of breaking into his former girlfriend’s home and breaking a window before the two went to jail Monday for trespassing.
Nathan Lipps, a candidate for the city’s fourth District, said he left his girlfriend and son in the house on Friday morning to search for deer and took a trail through the house and out the back yard. He believes he was on the porch when the woman’s dog woke up and got loose and attacked him.
Police said Lipps tried to use his cell phone to call 911, but the woman caught him and he fled to the back yard. The woman called police to report the door being broken and a bear seen in the yard.
A bear has been spotted around Lake Tahoe and the South Shore and, on Lipps’ Facebook page, he claimed it was a bear, and he could not leave because it was inside.
The woman, who Lipps does not know, told police she did not hear anything.
“I was on my way to Tahoe City Hall but wanted to speak on my cell phone so I just drove to Tahoe City Hall and called 911 from there,” Lipps said Tuesday. But then he got a call from a dispatcher, who said he and the woman were not in the house but Lipps was at a park, he believes the dispatcher misheard.
“I’ve never in my life had an experience like that,” said Lipps. “I just can’t believe this, and I can’t believe how it all happened.”
The Tahoe Police Department determined Lipps never entered the house, and as a result they recommended he pay the $150 fine and not be charged. He said he was not sure he would accept the fine because he could not afford it, but he did agree to not go back to the house.
The woman told police she did not hear anything and that a bear
