By Elizabeth Barber

BOSTON (Reuters) - A Connecticut man charged with stealing a taxi cab stepped out of a Boston Police Department station house and into an empty patrol car for a nap early on Monday morning, police said.

Shortly after being arrested on charges of stealing a car and released on bail, 33-year-old Nicholas Cunliffe of Stratford, Connecticut, was found asleep in the front seat of an empty police car outside the police station where he had been booked.

"After officers were able to rouse Cunliffe from his nap, he told officers he was just looking for a place to rest," police said in a statement, adding that they were not sure how he had gotten into the cruiser.

Cunliffe was charge with breaking and entering.

It was the second time this month that Boston police have arrested someone for breaking into someone else's car for a nap.

Last Wednesday, a woman found two people asleep in her car parked near an area hospital after she got off work on a night shift.

Police arrested Jean Marcellus, 30, of Boston, and Nicole Makseyn, 38, of Lexington and charged them with breaking and entering a motor vehicle.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Barber; Editing by Scott Malone and James Dalgleish)