The authorities have lodged new felony charges in a case that clocked some time on the InMaricopa.com homepage last month. 

Eric W. Lay, 38, had already spent an obscene amount of his life in traffic court by the time Maricopa police officers found him hauling a stolen trailer past the cop shop Jan 7. He had initiated his own traffic stop despite also having dozens of doses of meth and fentanyl on his person. 

At the time, we reported that the police found some odd items in his truck, but more investigation was needed to determine if they were just that — odd — or if they were the trappings of another crime. 

Turns out, it was the latter. 

When officers arrested Lay that day, they found four copper pipes and spigots that appeared to have been freshly cut under his truck’s bench seat. Elsewhere in the vehicle, cops found a cordless rotary grinder with a cutting disk, an electrical saw, pliers and clippers, according to a probable-cause statement obtained by InMaricopa. 

It was just five days after his arrest that Maricopa Police Department received a tip that a person had stolen a section of copper pipe from four waterlines in new home builds in Desert Passage. 

MPD officers showed the construction superintendent the four pipes seized from Lay’s vehicle, each with a tag still on the spigot, and he confirmed they were the ones that were stolen. The cost to replace them totaled $1,100, the police document stated. 

Lay, a Saddleback Farms resident, was out on bail until Tuesday morning when police in Laveen were arresting a wanted man who was driving Lay’s car. Lay was in the passenger seat. 

During an interview, Lay denied knowledge of the pipes, and said he did not know how they had gotten into his truck. When police brought up Lay’s “numerous records” of illegal scrapping in the past, he denied ever stealing or dealing copper. 

Lay was booked into the Pinal County jail on felony charges of burglary in the third degree, aggravated criminal damage, possession of burglary tools and theft of metals. He faces more than 23 years in prison.