Backseat_of_Patrol_Car.jpg

The back seat of Portland police patrol car, where a 30-year-old man slept Monday night before an officer heard him yelling for help on Tuesday morning.

(Portland Police Bureau)

Portland police Officer Rich Storm made an unusual find Tuesday morning inside a patrol car parked outside

.

Storm heard someone yelling and opened the back door of the patrol car about 7:45 a.m. Inside was a 30-year-old man who had decided to sleep in the car overnight after finding it unlocked.

But the sleeping man was unable to get out. The back doors cannot be opened from the inside, and a plexiglass cage is located between the rear and front seats.

Ruben James Turner III

Police found the man had not only slept in the car, but had rummaged through the vehicle's glove box and unhooked the mobile data computer from its mount inside the car, police said.

Once in the back seat, the man ripped out foam padding from the interior roof lining of the car, and from around the plastic seats, police said.

The man also had written with his finger in one window's condensation the word "Help,'' but from the outside it read, "pleH,'' according to police.

Once located, the man was identified as Ruben James Turner III, 30, and he was arrested.

Turner is accused of first-degree criminal mischief, unlawful entry into a motor vehicle, and second-degree criminal trespass.

He's been booked into the

.

The unlocked car was not assigned to Storm, police said.

Portland police cars generally should be locked, bureau spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said.

The unlocked patrol car parked in the lot of Southeast Precinct was "likely an oversight,'' Simpson said.

--Maxine Bernstein