GLOCESTER — Robert L. Green told the police he didn’t know he was doing anything illegal.

The 36-year-old Providence resident allegedly broke into an abandoned house on Putnam Pike and stole all its copper pipes last week. The owner of the boarded-up house, who lives across the street, watched Green exit the house and speed off in his car. He notified the police.

After he was stopped with a duffel bag of pipes and a hacksaw, the police say Green admitted that he had entered the house and removed the pipes, which carried water to the house. Then, according to Police Capt. Joseph Mattera, Green asked: “Why, is that against the law?”

Green was charged with a felony count of breaking and entering and one count of malicious damage of property, a misdemeanor.

The police on Thursday afternoon received a call of a suspicious vehicle parked behind the house at 58 Putnam Pike, and were able to located the vehicle being driven on Putnam Pike. Officers later found that the front door of the abandoned house had been kicked in.

Green was arraigned in District Court in Providence on Friday and is being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions for allegedly violating his probation on a prior charge of possession of marijuana. His probation violation hearing is set for Feb. 2.