Coupeville Marshal Rick Norrie’s attention to odd details led to the apprehension of a suspected car thief and burglar last weak.

Norrie was on routine patrol Aug. 17 when he noticed a disheveled man slumped on the steering wheel of a Mercedes Benz SUV parked on the front lawn of a home inside 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.

So 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.

The man was identified as Christopher Nielsen, a transient and “known drug user,” Hawley wrote. A deputy contacted Norrie and said he had probable cause to arrest Nielsen on the Aug. 16 or 17 burglary of Neil’s Clover Patch Cafe.

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.

Prosecutors, however, have only charged Nielsen with possession of a stolen vehicle so far. A conviction could mean more than four years in prison for him.

Island County Superior Court Judge Alan Hancock set Nielsen’s bail at $30,000 on Aug. 21.