A suspected car thief and burglar who was caught after he passed out behind the wheel was recently sent to prison.
Christopher Nielsen, 30, pleaded guilty in Island County Superior Court Feb. 9 to one count of possession of a stolen vehicle and two counts of possession of stolen property in the third degree.
Under the terms of a plea bargain, both the prosecution and the defense recommended a sentence of four years and five months in prison.
The judge agreed.
Nielsen also agreed to pay restitution to four victims.
In his statement to the court, Nielsen apologized to the victims and said he committed the crimes because of his drug addiction.
Coupeville Marshal Rick Norrie was on routine patrol Aug. 17, 2014, when he noticed a disheveled man slumped on the steering wheel of a Mercedes Benz SUV parked on the front lawn of a home in the Terry Mobile Home Park, according to a report by Lt. Mike Hawley with the Island County Sheriff’s Office.
Norrie rapped on the car window, but the man just looked up groggily and laid his head back down on the steering wheel. He contacted the resident of the home, but the man had no idea why the vehicle was parked on his property.
Norrie ran a check on the SUV and found it was registered to a West Beach Road resident.
An Oak Harbor police officer went to the house to check and found the garage door open and evidence of forced entry into the house. The residents were on vacation.
Norrie then knocked on the SUV window until the man “finally roused from his stupor and opened the door,” Hawley wrote.
Norrie noticed a hypodermic needle on the floorboard beneath the driver, the report states.
A deputy sheriff contacted Norrie and said he had probable cause to arrest Nielsen on the Aug. 16 or 17 burglary of Neil’s Clover Patch Cafe on South Whidbey.
The alleged burglar or burglars gained access through a tiny window, and the thieves got away with $200 to $300 in loose change.
The thief got in by squeezing through an 18-inch-wide, metal-screened window in a food pantry, according to the South Whidbey Record.
