May 12—VERNON — A local business owner has been charged with larceny after he refused to allow another man access to the building to retrieve his tools and other equipment.

Ralph Biedermann, 55, of Tolland, was charged in April with first-degree larceny. He is free on $25,000 bond and is to appear in Vernon Superior Court on June 20.

According to an affidavit, police responded to Exhaust Specialists on River Street on March 14, with reports of a man having an argument with the owner, identified as Biedermann.

Officers arrived to find the two still arguing.

Police spoke with Biedermann first, who explained that he hired the other man in November with the expectation that he was going to take over daily operations at the business. The man brought in tools, equipment, and customer vehicles to begin working, but then stopped showing up.

Biedermann said he eventually told the man to remove all of his belongings, but that didn't happen. When the man showed up that day, Biedermann said he first demanded to be paid $100 a day, dating back to January, as storage fees before the man could remove his belongings.

Police questioned if the two men had a contract stating such an agreement, and Biedermann said they didn't and it didn't matter if the man didn't want to pay the fees.

Police told Biedermann that the issue of paying for storage was a civil matter, and he couldn't prohibit the man from picking up his belongings. Biedermann continued to refuse to let the man inside.

Officers spoke with the other man, who said he had stopped showing up to the business because he was involved in a car accident in the weeks after moving in his tools.

The man told police that he was out of work for about a month, during which time Biedermann asked him to remove his customers' vehicles from the property.

On one occasion, he sent his father and another employee over to work on a vehicle, but Biedermann had changed the locks and refused to let them in. Biedermann demanded that he have the vehicles and tools removed, yet gave him no way to access the building, the man told police.

In December, the man said he contacted Biedermann with plans to remove all of his items at one time, but Biedermann said he needed to remove the vehicles before he would allow the tools to be moved.

The man said he showed up at the business in January with a tow truck and found that Biedermann had already moved some of the vehicles. Around that time, Biedermann said he was going to begin charging the man $100 a day until he removed the items.

The man said he returned to the shop that day to retrieve his tools, and Biedermann told him to get off the property.

Police reviewed text messages between the two men, in which the man made attempts to retrieve his belongings, but received no cooperation from Biedermann to access the building. Biedermann was knowingly holding the man's tools and equipment in his shop, police concluded.

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