Nursery camera catches home inspector pleasuring himself with Elmo doll, MI cops say
“Just when I think I have seen it all, someone steps up and surprises me with a new level of disturbing actions.”
An alert from a homeowner’s nursery camera led to charges for a home inspector in Michigan this week, police say.
An Oxford Township couple were trying to sell their home and had it inspected on March 12 at the request of the potential buyers, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.
The couple told police they let the home inspector and buyer’s real estate agent into their home and left while the inspection was underway.
Soon, one of the homeowners — a 22-year-old woman — received an alert from her nursery camera that there was movement inside the room, police said.
She checked the camera from her phone and said she saw the inspector, identified as 59-year-old Kevin VanLuven, in the nursery. As she watched, VanLuven began to touch himself, police said, so the woman started to record the video.
At one point, VanLuven is accused of picking up an Elmo doll from the floor and using it to continue pleasuring himself before returning the doll to where he’d found it.
When deputies arrived at the home, VanLuven reportedly told police he’d just moved the doll to inspect an electrical outlet.
After he learned there was a camera in the room, police said he “made incriminating statements and apologized.”
“Just when I think I have seen it all, someone steps up and surprises me with a new level of disturbing actions,” Sheriff Michael Bouchard said of the incident. “This is a disgusting reminder to be cautious about who you let into your home. The actions of these homeowners will likely prevent this defendant from going into anyone else’s home.”
VanLuven was arrested Wednesday without incident.
He is charged with aggravated indecent exposure and malicious destruction of property under $200.
VanLuven’s bond is set at $2,500. Conditions of his bond preclude him from being in any home he doesn’t own unsupervised or from contacting the couple involved. He must also undergo a mental health evaluation.
If convicted, VanLuven could face roughly two years in prison and $2,500 in fines, police said.
He’s due back in court on April 19.
Oxford Township is roughly 40 miles north of Detroit.
