RIVERSIDE >> A man was arrested early Sunday after police say he stole a van from outside a Riverside mortuary with a dead body inside, returned it and then stole a different van from the same business.

The van was parked outside a mortuary in the 1900 block of Chicago Avenue about 1:30 a.m., said Officer Ryan Railsback.

“He (the driver) had just picked up a decedent and returned to the mortuary to pick up some paperwork,” he said. “He left the keys in the car but it wasn’t on or anything.”

The suspect, who Railsback identified as 24-year-old Bobby Joe Washington, got in the van and drove away with the body still inside.

About an hour later, an officer at the scene investigating the theft was flagged down about a different van that had just been stolen.

Railsback said Washington had noticed the body and returned the van to steal a different one. An employee saw and tried to stop him, at which point the suspect tried unsuccessfully to run that person over.

The officer at the scene pursued the second stolen van to the intersection of Linden Street and Canyon Crest drive about 2 1/2 miles from the mortuary, Railsback said.

Washington stopped but was initially uncooperative with the officer. He was ultimately arrested on suspicion of two counts of vehicle theft, one count of assault with a deadly weapon and evading a police officer, jail records show.

He was taken to the Robert Presley Detention Center, where bail was set at $100,000.

Stealing a dead body isn’t included in his list of charges because police believe he didn’t mean to steal it, Railsback said.