A deputy assigned to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office substation on St. Helena Island noticed the temperature inside was "excessively high" when he arrived on Saturday morning.

When he went around the side of the building, it became clear why: The air conditioning unit for the substation on Station Creek Drive had been stolen, according to an incident report.

An electrical box mounted to the building also had been damaged.

The deputy dusted for fingerprints and swabbed for DNA samples on the unit's empty mounting pad and the cut electrical cords and copper wires left in the wake of the missing unit.

The air conditioning unit was valued at $1,000, the report said.