Suspect finds air not so free

Police say a Southwest Philadelphia man thought he found one way to beat the heat over the weekend - he stole his next-door neighbor's air conditioner.

About 2:25 a.m. Sunday, with the temperature still hovering around 85 degrees, police say a 53-year-old woman was in the first floor of rowhouse on the 5200 block of Chester Avenue when she heard noise coming from a upstairs bedroom.

"Come on, hurry up," she told police she heard someone saying.

The woman tried to open the bedroom door, but it was jammed shut, police said.

Pushing it open, she ran to the window and saw her neighbor, Talmer Kershaw, 45, and another man carrying her air conditioner unit across her roof to Kershaw's home, police said.

The woman dressed and confronted Kershaw. He denied taking the air conditioner, police said.

The woman flagged down 12th District patrol officers, who obtained a search warrant and found her air conditioner under a blanket in Kershaw's bedroom, police said.

Kershaw has 27 prior arrests, including some for drugs, assault and robbery.

Police could not say what the temperature was in the district holding cell where Kershaw and his accomplice, Roy Nelson, 50, spent the night, both charged with burglary for the attempted air conditioner heist.