A homeless man in Leesburg was arrested for loitering when an officer caught him using a flashlight outside Salvation Army.
An officer was patrolling the Salvation Army, located at 2605 South St., when he spotted 60-year-old Eric John Conzelmann squatting with a flashlight behind the driver’s door of a box truck around 8:40 p.m. Thursday, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department.
As soon as the officer exited his patrol vehicle, Conzelmann got up, shut off his light, began to walk in the opposite direction and hid behind the truck. The officer commanded he come toward the front of the truck, and he showed himself at the back of the truck. He claimed to have permission from an employee to sleep on the property. This was later refuted by said employee, the report said.
The officer continued his questioning, to which Conzelmann stated he was behind the box truck to urinate. When asked about the exact spot, he described the south side of a temporary fence that was about 8 ft from the driver’s side door of the truck. He then stated he did not urinate but insisted he was trying to do so behind the box truck, the report said.
Law enforcement subsequently found a broken radio antenna from the box truck on the ground, which appeared to be freshly broken off from the truck and bent into an “L” shape. This could be used to bypass the mechanical locks on older-model vehicles. The antenna had a sharp edge where it was broken off, the report said.
Additionally, Conzelmann had a small fresh, bleeding cut on his left finger. He advised that he got it while fixing his bicycle about two hours before speaking with the officer, the report said.
The New York native was arrested for loitering and prowling. He was booked at the Lake County Jail with bond set at $500.