Shane Lindsay, 37, had a problem: he had no money to buy a television to watch during his upcoming prison sentence. His solution: steal an air conditioner before serving his sentence and sell it for some TV money.
As he later told police, that was the plan, anyway.
Buckeye police were called early Sunday morning about a suspicious person hanging out at a vacant home in the 9000 block of South Parkside Lane.
When officers responded to the home, they found that the an air conditioning unit had been stolen. The suspect was nowhere to be found.
A witness, however, was able to give officers a vehicle description and license plate number of the car seen at the home.
As detectives searched the area near the home from which the air
conditioner was stolen, they found the vehicle -- and Lindsay -- at
metal recycling company.
Lindsay admitted to police that he stole the air conditioner, and to selling it to the metal company.
Then he told them why he did it -- as we mentioned, so he could get
money to buy a TV to watch during an upcoming two-year prison sentence
he's scheduled to serve for an unrelated crime.
Lindsay was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on one count of
burglary and one count of trafficking in stolen property -- both
felonies.