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Portland police responded two days in a row to a man suspected of stealing aerosol cans from North Portland stores and then inhaling from them, a court affidavit said.

(The Oregonian)

The first report came from the Walmart store at Delta Park on Sept. 23: A man who had been inhaling from an aerosol can was passed out in the men's bathroom.

A Portland police officer found Craig James Fredericks, 31, in a bathroom stall, bleeding from his head, according to prosecutor Adam Gibbs. There were three aerosol cans in the stall.

Fredericks told police that he had taken the cans from the nearby Lowe's and come to Walmart to use them, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Craig James Fredericks, 31

Police had Fredericks transported by ambulance to a local hospital.

The next morning, police got called to the Lowe's store on Hayden Island on a report of a "known huffer'' who was back at the store, the affidavit said.

A Portland police officer spotted Fredericks walking out of the Lowe's store with a can of inhalant in his hand, Gibbs wrote in the affidavit.

The officer, the prosecutor wrote, made eye contact with Fredericks and yelled, "Craig, stop! You are under arrest!"

Fredericks looked at the officer, said "Sorry,'' and ran, the affidavit said.

Police found Fredericks hiding under a semi-trailer truck in a nearby parking lot.

"Due to the arrangement of the trailer, officers were unable to go under the trailer and bring him out,'' Gibbs wrote.

For more than an hour, officers tried to talk Fredericks into coming out from under the truck, police and prosecutors said.

But as police attempted to talk, they could tell Fredericks was "repeatedly inhaling'' from the two aerosol cans he had with him, the affidavit said.

Eventually, police gave Fredericks something else to inhale.

The officers deployed pepper spray under the trailer, which got Fredericks out from under it, the affidavit said.

Fredericks was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on allegations of three counts of unlawful possession of an inhalant and third-degree escape. He remains in custody.

--Maxine Bernstein