A home inspector in Oakland County, Michigan, has been convicted of aggravated indecent exposure after a security camera showed him masturbating with a Tickle Me Elmo doll while at a client’s home.
Kevin Wayne VanLuven of Clarkston was convicted Wednesday during a one-day trial but acquitted on another charge: malicious destruction of property.
VanLuven was arrested in April 2021 while doing a home inspection in Oxford Township. He was in one of the client’s bedrooms when Jaida Dawson, one of the home’s owners, got a notification that someone was in the nursery.
When Dodson pulled up the webcam alert, she saw VanLuven masturbating before picking up an Elmo doll off the floor “and appeared to pleasure himself with the doll,” the Royal Oak Tribune reported.
“I just went blank,” Dodson told Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV at the time. “My husband was staring at me from across the room and was, like, ‘What’s wrong?’ He asked me repeatedly, and I couldn’t even articulate what I was seeing.”
VanLuven was still inspecting the house when Oakland County investigators arrived at the scene. He claimed that he had moved the doll to inspect an electrical outlet but confessed after learning about the camera in the nursery.
The responding officer also reported that VanLuven “admitted to placing his penis in Elmo’s mouth, in the doll’s mouth” and “apologized and said he was ashamed,” according to The Smoking Gun.
“You don’t think anything can surprise you, and yet, the disgusting ability of some people still manages to surprise me on this,” Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard told the station.
Although indecent exposure is a misdemeanor in Michigan, VanLuven faces up to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine when he’s sentenced in December, according to the Oakland Press.
Support HuffPost
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.