{"id":419670,"date":"2026-07-31T16:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419670\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:48:12","slug":"man-accused-of-taking-backhoe-on-a-joyride-released-with-gps-monitoring-device","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419670\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of taking backhoe on a joyride released with GPS monitoring device"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A man accused of stealing a backhoe at 5 a.m. from a construction site and going on a destructive joyride in North Park appeared before a judge this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Liam Quigley, 28, was released on a supervised own-recognizance condition Wednesday.  The judge ordered him to wear a GPS monitoring device that also was requested by his attorney, Julie Gibson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Quigley pleaded not guilty to theft of the backhoe, which was taken from a construction site near University Avenue and Utah Street, and two counts of destruction of public property.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A man was arrested after allegedly driving a stolen backhoe down a street in San Diego, California, on July 26, causing significant damage. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/o0gnMvhtfb\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/o0gnMvhtfb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 KTLA (@KTLA) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KTLA\/status\/2082571648755253557?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 29, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alleged theft occurred at beginning of the week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The excavator was a bobcat-type backhoe that eventually stopped at the broken North Park Observatory sign. Damages were estimated at $25,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The destruction included five street signs, a streetlight that was knocked over and an overturned planter. The backhoe\u2019s bucket also dragged down University, drawing sparks, as apparently the suspect did not know how to lift it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">City workers, dispatched this week, repaired most of the damage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">San Diego Superior Court Judge Laura Duffy ordered Quigley not to drive unless he is insured and also not to possess property that is not his own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guy Gusdagni, the general manager of The Mission restaurant, told NBC 7 he was sipping coffee at 5 a.m. and was startled when he saw and heard the backhoe drive by.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was wild. I had to call the police. I had to get somebody out here. I didn\u2019t want anybody getting hurt,\u201d Gusdagni said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe had no shirt on. Could be homeless, I\u2019m not sure. Having a good time knocking stuff over,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like that. That was bizarre.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court set an Aug. 11 preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man accused of stealing a backhoe at 5 a.m. from a construction site and going on a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[983,74,76,75,10177],"class_list":["post-419670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-north-park","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-superior-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}