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HANOVER TWP. — Township police say they arrested Charles Matthew O’Connell of Tobyhanna shortly after he allegedly stole a vehicle because he was lost while walking on Lee Park Avenue.
After allegedly stealing the vehicle, O’Connell, 25, had second thoughts and abandoned it, still idling, in the parking lot of Lee Park Towers. O’Connell then knocked on a door to a residence asking the homeowner to charge his cell phone, according to court records.
According to the criminal complaint:
Police responded to Lee Park Avenue after a 2006 Chevrolet was reported stolen just after 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The vehicle was warming up as the owner returned to his residence.
When an officer arrived on scene, O’Connell was seen talking to a woman on the porch of a home. O’Connell then walked across the street when he was stopped.
O’Connell had an odor of an alcoholic beverage on him and was in possession of $39 and a smoke pipe with burnt residue of suspected marijuana, the complaint says.
The woman who was seen talking to O’Connell told police she had no idea who he was and why he knocked on her door.
After O’Connell was arrested, he claimed he stole the vehicle because he had no idea where he was while walking on Lee Park Avenue. O’Connell said he decided to ditch the vehicle seconds after stealing it before knocking on the door of a home asking to charge his phone, the complaint says.
O’Connell was arraigned by District Judge Rick Cronauer in Wilkes-Barre on charges of theft of a vehicle, theft, receiving stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving with a suspended license. Cronauer imposed bail of $10,000 unsecured but O’Connell was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility on an active warrant in Monroe County.
Court records say a warrant was issued for O’Connell on April 2 when he failed to appear for a preliminary hearing in Monroe County on drunken driving offenses.