A man threw a knife and rocks at the Oak Harbor police station, scaled a fence into the back parking lot and tried to steal a Jeep early in the morning of April 16, according to police.

Police Chief Kevin Dresker said it’s unclear what the man’s motives were, but that mental illness or substance use may have been factors. Court documents indicate that the man is homeless.

Dresker said recent upgrades to the security of the police station on Southeast Barrington Drive worked as intended. He worked to get the parking lot behind the building fenced in about four years ago to protect both city equipment and employees. While the man was able to climb over the fence, the fact that he did so to enter an area that’s clearly off limits means it’s a serious crime. In the past, people were able to simply walk through the lot.

In addition, new high-definition cameras on the outside of the building captured the unusual events of the early morning hours.

The suspect, 53-year-old Robert L. Parker, appeared in Island County Superior Court April 17. The judge set his bail at $2,500.

Prosecutors charged Parker April 19 with burglary in the second degree. If convicted of the crime, he could face up to a year and four months in prison because of his criminal history, which includes resisting arrest, vehicle theft and felony protection order violation.

A report on the incident explains that an officer was coming into work at the station on Southeast Barrington Drive at about 5:20 a.m. and entered the fenced parking lot, noticing that the door of a Jeep Gladiator was open. He then saw Parker punching buttons on a keypad that could potentially give him access to the police department sally port.

The officer was in plain clothes and not in a position to arrest Parker, so he told the man he wasn’t supposed to be there and then radioed for assistance. Police arrived, found Parker sitting inside the drivers seat of the Jeep and arrested him, according to the officer’s report.

Parker told police that he planned on stealing the vehicle and driving it through the fence that surrounds the police parking lot. He also said he tried breaking a front window of the police department by throwing a knife at it, the officer wrote.

The officer reviewed video from surveillance cameras on the outside of the building. The videos showed Parker at the front of the building, looking through a glass door and knocking. He threw a knife at a glass door and then tipped over a large flower pot and threw another object at the door.

The video then shows Parker climbing over a fence into the parking lot, the report states, where he eventually encountered the officer.