A 24-year-old man who made regional headlines Monday after breaking into a Portland home and calling 9-1-1 to say the owner had arrived was arrested early Wednesday morning at Walmart in Chehalis where police found him loading stolen stereo equipment and other goods into a stolen 2011 BMW car.
Timothy J. Chapek, of Beaverton, Ore., appeared Wednesday in Lewis County Superior Court to face charges of possessing a stolen vehicle and second-degree theft.
Following his 7 p.m. Monday arrest, before which Chapek and the woman homeowner had both called 9-1-1, respectively, Chapek bailed out of the Multnomah County Jail on the charge of first-degree criminal trespass.
Prosecutors alleged Chapek couldn’t be trusted to reappear in court here and recommended his bail set at $100,000, to which Judge Richard Brosey agreed.
“I don’t think Mr. Chapek needs to be going anywhere,” Brosey said.
Chapek will be arraigned on the charges March 17.
On Monday, the Southwest Portland homeowner — accompanied by her two German Shepherds — found Chapek taking a shower before he locked himself in the bathroom, fearing she had a gun.
Court documents say that about 20 minutes after midnight Wednesday, Walmart workers observed Chapek loading up a shopping cart full of merchandise before exiting the store’s emergency exit in the garden center.
Police said they found Chapek loading up the BMW parked near the exit with speakers, amplifiers, clothes, backpacks, work gloves, golf balls, a hammer, a crow-bar, a hacksaw, bolt-cutters, an electric drill, cleaning wipes, knives, a slingshot, three pairs of shoes, socks, dress shirts, ties, three pairs of pants, sunglasses and headphones.
The merchandise was valued at $1,103.
Police say Chapek was unsuccessful at prying open a cash register in Walmart’s garden center.
The BMW Chapek was driving was a loaner car from Kuni BMW in Beaverton, according to police.
The car dealership said Chapek requested 7 p.m. Tuesday to test drive a BMW, starting paperwork to buy a car and stating he made over $100 million a year.
When he was told he needed a co-signer, Chapek left the store.
When Chapek was booked into the Lewis County Jail, he was in possession of $817.
