A Bloomfield man is accused of stealing the air conditioner out of his apartment, selling it, then stretching the truth when an officer tried to find it and return it to the owner.

Lloyd Robert Turpin, 48, Bloomfield, was arrested by Det. David Elmore of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department yesterday morning, Wednesday, August 12. Turpin was taken into custody on a warrant for his arrest that was issued on Monday, August 10, as a result of an investigation by Lt. Marvin Holt of the Bloomfield Police Department.

Lt. Holt began an investigation on Wednesday, August 5, into the theft of an air conditioner after the housing manager at the High Rise Housing Authority located at 100 West Main Street in Bloomfield reported that the air conditioner was missing out of an apartment occupied by Lloyd Turpin.

Lt. Holt said that according to the housing manager, Turpin was on the eviction list and she said he had put objects into the toilet in his apartment, then let it run and overflow causing water to flow out into the hallway. She also said he had turned the oven on, left the oven door open and left the apartment. When maintenance personnel entered the apartment to clean up a mess, they discovered the air conditioner had been taken out of the wall and was missing.

The officer was able to make contact with Turpin who allegedly said the air condition was getting fixed at a location in Stanford, because it was leaking fluid. But the housing manager said the air conditioner, valued between $500 and $600, was one of the most recent ones that had been replaced and that all repairs were handled by the management – protocol was for a resident to turn in a request for repairs, and Turpin had not asked for a repair.

Turpin failed to give the officer the number of the repair person then said the air conditioner was in the back of his car which was in Bloomington.

Lt. Holt made contact with a man in Bloomington who confirmed there was an air conditioner in the back of a car at his place so Lt. Holt drove up there and picked up the air conditioner out of the car.

But, when Lt. Holt contacted the housing manager to tell her he had the air conditioner, she said she’d just talked to Turpin and he told her he had the air conditioner and would have it put back in by that night. When Lt. Holt contacted her again the next day, on August 6, she said she had the air conditioner so the one the officer had was not the right one.

The housing manager also shared that a family member of Turpin had given him a ride to go retrieve the right air conditioner. So Lt. Holt contacted the family member and learned the air conditioner was picked up at a house near Beachwood Lake. When Lt. Holt contacted the resident near Beachwood Lake, he was told Turpin had sold the air conditioner to him for $100 and a smaller air conditioner was taken in trade in addition to the cash. Turpin had then contacted the resident and said the air conditioner belonged to the apartment. The resident wanted his money back and the family member apparently was able to give him part of his money back.

Criminal case filed, warrant issued, Turpin taken into custody. When he was booked into the Greene County Jail, his bond was set at $4,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. As of 6 p.m. tonight, he had not yet posted bond and was still in jail.

When Turpin appeared in Greene Superior Court earlier this afternoon, Thursday, August 13, he was charged with theft with a prior conviction, a Level 6 felony.