Man caught trying to rob Showers Inn

A man attempting to steal flat screen televisions and computers was caught by police as he was walking out the door.  

Joshua H. Arthur, 21, of Bloomington, faces a preliminary charge for burglary.  

Bloomington Police Department officers were dispatched around 4:50 a.m. Wednesday morning to Showers Inn Bed and Breakfast. Police received a tip from an anonymous caller that morning stating a burglary was about to take place at Showers Inn.  

When police arrived, they found the front door unlocked. BPD Officer Chris Scott entered the home, where he was approached by Arthur, who was carrying a flat screen TV. Arthur complied with police orders to lie on the ground and drop the TV, BPD Sgt. Jeff Canada said, reading from a police report.  

Arthur confessed to police he was going to burglarize the home. When police asked how Arthur entered the home, he was belligerent and said he “just came upon it,” Canada said.  

Police observed two computers unplugged and pushed to the edge of a desk, the drawers in the home ransacked with silverware rolled up in a towel on a table, and a bag with a white iHome speaker system and pieces of mail not belonging to Arthur, Canada said, reading from the report.  

Dan Fierst, owner of the bed and breakfast, said Showers Inn has only been open for about four weeks.

“We were just wondering how he got in,” Fierst said.

Fierst said Showers Inn has five external doors, and one of the doors had maintenance work done earlier that day and might have been left unlocked.  

“We were lucky because nothing was stolen and nothing was broken,” Fierst said. “He did help himself to a glass of milk, though.”

Arthur was taken to the Monroe County Jail.