Hardeeville men arrested for napping in strangers’ cars on Hilton Head Island
Everyone knows what it feels like to need a nap, but two men on Hilton Head Island appear to have taken their slumbering a little too far.
Early Thursday morning, a Hilton Head man opened the driver’s side of his 2006 gray Saab outside his Mathews Drive residence and was surprised to find a man he didn’t know fast asleep in the seat, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report.
The sleeping man, later identified as Jose Osorio, 18, of Hardeeville, awakened, got out of the car and walked away, but the owner of the car was able to take Osorio’s picture before he left.
Osorio was then arrested in nearby Lake Heron Villas. He told deputies he was homeless and had checked multiple cars that didn’t belong to him in search of a place to sleep.
“He didn’t realize that was a criminal offense,” the report states.
According to the report, Osorio had a prescription bottle on him with a scratched-off label containing a single Alprazolam, a schedule-four controlled substance. He said he didn’t remember where he got the medication, the report states.
Osorio was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance and with breaking into a motor vehicle. He was taken to the Detention Center on Thursday, and his bond was set at $10,000.
A few hours after this incident, deputies received another report of a man sleeping in a car not belonging to him.
James Arnsdorff, 30, of Hardeeville was found asleep Thursday afternoon in the Bi-Lo parking lot on Mathews Drive in a 2003 GMC Envoy that had been reported stolen a day earlier, according to a Sheriff’s Office report.
Coincidentally, the owner of the stolen car happened to be in the same parking lot that day and discovered the sleeping Arnsdorff, the report said.
The formerly all-white car had been spray-painted in places with gray paint. It was not clear why.
Arnsdorff was still sleeping at the wheel with the keys in the ignition when deputies arrived, according to the report. They awakened him and asked him if he knew whose car this was. He said he did not.
Law enforcement found multiple credit cards that did not belong to Arnsdorff and gray spray paint on his fingers during a search, according to the report. In the car, deputies also found a key to a Toyota and a SouthState Bank Visa that did not belong to the owner of the car or to Arnsdorff, and a bottle of Rust-Oleum Professional High Performance Enamel spray paint.
Arnsdorff was charged with financial transaction card theft, malicious injury to personal property, grand larceny of a value more than $2,000 but less than $10,000, first-degree burglary and breaking into a motor vehicle.
He was transported to the Beaufort County Detention Center on Thursday, and his bond was set at $92,125.
This story was originally published December 6, 2016 at 11:20 AM with the headline "Hardeeville men arrested for napping in strangers’ cars on Hilton Head Island."