When you hire a professional to examine the condition of a property, you naturally expect a thorough appraisal.
However, a home inspector in Michigan with a keen eye for detail appears to have badly overstepped his brief.
Kevin Wayne VanLuven is accused of pleasuring himself with an Elmo doll during an inspection of a client’s house, according to police.
The 59-year-old allegedly took an unsettling interest in the stuffed Sesame Street toy while in the nursery of a woman’s home in Oxford Township on March 12, The Smoking Gun reported.
VanLuven had been hired to check out the property ahead of a sale. But he offered up more detail than the absent 22-year-old homeowner was expecting when she got a phone alert that a webcam in the children’s room had detected movement.
After accessing the camera feed remotely, the horrified woman allegedly saw VanLuven touching himself with the furry doll and dialled 911.
When confronted by sheriff’s deputies, VanLuven initially claimed he had only moved the Elmo doll to look at an electrical outlet, according to the police report.
But when officers told him there was a camera in the nursery, VanLuven allegedly made incriminating statements and apologized.
He was charged with aggravated indecent exposure and malicious destruction of property and booked into the Oakland County jail.
A judge also ordered VanLuven to undergo a mental health evaluation and banned him from being alone in residential properties that he does not own.
As of Thursday, he was being held in jail in lieu of a $2,500 bond. If convicted, he faces up to two years behind bars.