Police: Alleged Car Thief Found Sleeping Inside Stolen Vehicle

A stolen vehicle was recovered on Hall Road last Friday, with the alleged thief found sleeping in the backseat.

A Utica patrol officer wrote in a police report that he was driving down Hall Road, near Northpointe Avenue just after 2:30 a.m. when he noticed what appeared to be an abandoned grey Toyota Corolla parked on the shoulder.

When the officer flashed his lights into the vehicle, he noticed a man sleeping in the back seat and several beer cans strewn all over the vehicle.

When the 48-year-old White Lake man woke up, he told police he had borrowed the vehicle from his mother but ran out of gas and didn't have money to fill the tank.

A preliminary breath test indicated the man had a blood alcohol level of .154. Officers ran the man's name into the police data base and saw that the vehicle was reported stolen out of Oakland County, and the driver was the man listed as the person who took the vehicle.

The driver was arrested because he had a suspended license and a warrant out for his arrest on an operating while intoxicated charge out of Troy, where his bond was 10 percent of $20,000.

The vehicle was towed and the man faces charges of motor vehicle theft.