A 37-year-old Bellingham man is accused of stealing a car from a disabled woman who had hired him to help take care of her animals, court documents show.

Prosecutors charged Brodie Daniel in Island County Superior Court June 2 with possession of methamphetamine and taking a motor vehicle without permission.

Daniel pleaded not guilty June 16. If convicted, he could face up to six months in jail under the standard sentencing range.

Island County Deputy James Scott investigated the case. He wrote that a 64-year-old North Whidbey woman reported last June that she had hired Daniel to help her. She let him stay on her property because he was homeless. She gave him $100 and let him use her truck to buy toiletries, but he purchased a cell phone instead, the report states.

The next day, she sent him into town in her truck with $300 to buy food, beer and toiletries. When he didn’t return for many hours —?and stopped answering his cell phone — the woman called police, Scott wrote.

“On Star” located the vehicle on SW Eighth Avenue in Oak Harbor. Oak Harbor Police Officer Jennifer Porter hid in the bushes and caught Daniel getting back into the truck, court documents state.

The officers arrested Daniel on three outstanding warrants. The officers found baggies containing 1.56 grams of meth in a jacket, court documents state.

Daniel told the deputy that he had been running errands for the woman, but she was being too pushy and bossy. He said he had just been hanging out with friends and denied that the meth-containing jacket was his, the deputy wrote.

Contact Whidbey News Times Assistant editor Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or 360.675.6611 ext. 5056.

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