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OKLAHOMA COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) – A former county commissioner was charged after allegedly taking a tractor from Tinker Air Force Base.

Former Oklahoma County Commissioner Earl Rooms is facing a felony count of automobile/equipment theft. He was commissioner from 1996-2000.

His attorney said he worked at Tinker for about 15 years.

“In our lives, we sometimes do things where we don’t think about the consequences, and then you’re like, ‘holy cow,’ here we are, we will try to handle things in a responsible manner,” Billy Bock, Rooms’ attorney, said.

A Tinker employee who did equipment inspections noticed the tractor was missing repeatedly.

The affidavit reads, “the tractor would just randomly show back up and never where it had last been seen.”

He put a GPS tracker on it and tracked it to the Shawnee area where a sheriff’s deputy was able to find it.

Rooms allegedly told him that, “the tractor wasn’t stolen, but he was only borrowing it to work his leased land with.”

Bock says Rooms posted bond Thursday morning.

“Mr. Rooms is a very nice gentleman very fine gentleman, he’s looking forward to addressing the issues in this case. He’s very much looking forward to getting it behind him,” he said.

He also says they’re working with Tinker and the District Attorney to see how to approach the case.

“We just have to get together and figure out how we’re going to move on to the next chapter whether that’s taking responsibility, whether that’s not taking responsibility,” he said.

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Rooms’ arraignment is scheduled for September. 

He also accused of using county equipment for his own property in 2000, but he was not charged in that case.