Charges are pending against a 53-year-old Ypsilanti Township man who owned the child pornography found by a Southfield couple Saturday after they won an auction for a Ypsilanti storage unit, according to police.
Ypsilanti police released a statement Tuesday night detailing the strange incident, which reads like an episode of the TV show Storage Wars gone wrong. Police first responded Saturday to National Storage Center, 521 Tyler Road, after being alerted of a discovery of child pornography.
A couple had won an auction for the storage unit and found child pornography while searching through the items. Police said Tyreek Wilkerson, 30, of Southfield, was the man who officially purchased the unit, which was auctioned off because the owner became delinquent on payments.
According to police, Wilkerson told employees at National Storage Center “he had discovered what appeared to be a small room set up for the production of child pornography,” police said.
Wilkerson removed the vast majority of the suspected child pornography and did not call police, according to investigators.
“Detectives were able to track this subject down and recovered a portion of the evidence from a dumpster and from inside the purchaser’s home,” police said in the statement.
Wilkerson was arraigned Tuesday on charges of possession of child pornography and lying during a police investigation, Detective Sgt. Thomas Eberts said. He posted a 10 percent of $10,000 bond and will return to court for a preliminary exam at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 1.
Wilkerson also had a detainer hold from another police agency in Wayne County, such as for an outstanding warrant, probation violation or parole violation, records show.
According to the Michigan Offender Tracking Information System, Wilkerson was discharged from state supervision in February. He has previous convictions for possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, receiving and concealing a stolen motor vehicle, possession of marijuana and attempted manufacture and delivery of marijuana, records show.
Eberts said earlier Tuesday that Wilkerson’s charges stem from his actions after discovering the child pornography.
On Tuesday, detectives also arrested the 53-year-old man who was the previous user of the storage unit.
Police searched the man’s home and discovered more evidence of child pornography, according to investigators. He was arrested and lodged at the Washtenaw County Jail.
“Detectives will be seeking charges of manufacturing/publishing child pornography,” the statement read.
The victim in the case is listed as an unknown preteen girl. It’s unknown at this point if the girl is known to the 53-year-old man.
The identity of the 53-year-old man is not known at this point — there was no criminal warrant filed in Washtenaw County court records for him Tuesday.
The investigation into the incident continues. Attempts to reach a spokesman for National Storage Center and Wilkerson's fiance, Shavon Henry, were not successful Tuesday.
Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to call Eberts at 734-482-9878 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK UP (773-2587).
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.