Man caught with 19-inch TV and brake fluid in his pants

A Columbia Heights man was arrested for allegedly stealing a 19-inch television – by shoving it down his pants. Twenty-one-year-old Eric Lee King was walking out of an Eagan business on Dec. 5, 2011, when he dropped a box of candy in the parking lot.

An Eagan police officer was in the area and let King know, but King kept walking as if he didn’t hear the officer, according to the complaint. The police officer said King was walking “straight-legged, shuffling his feet, and not bending his knees.” The officer also noticed that King’s pants were falling down and he was trying to hold them up.



After honking his horn and getting no response, the officer got out of his car and approached King. Police say King squatted down and reached into his pants, so the office handcuffed him for safety reasons. That’s when the officer saw a large, square item wrapped in plastic shoved down the man’s pants. The item turned out to be a 19-inch flat screen television.

Police say they also recovered a remote, power cords, and a bottle of brake fluid from his pants, along with two blue pills that were identified as the controlled substance Xanax. King has been charged with fifth degree controlled substance crime and shoplifting.