Nobody was injured when a man suffering a mental health crisis drove a stolen ice cream truck into a Freeland paint store early this morning, according to court documents.
After crashing through the front of the store, Zachary L. Steward, a 32-year-old Freeland resident, called 911 at about 1 a.m. and turned himself in, saying he was sorry and scared and wanted to be taken somewhere safe, according to a report by a deputy with the Island County Sheriff’s Office.
Steward appeared in Island County Superior Court this afternoon. Judge Carolyn Cliff found probable cause existed to believe Steward may have committed the crimes of theft of a motor vehicle, burglary in the second degree and three counts of malicious mischief in the first degree.
Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Eric Ohme told the judge that Steward has no criminal history, although he was recently arrested for a DUI charge that was subsequently dismissed.
Cliff followed the prosecutor’s recommendation to set Steward’s bail at $10,000 and to order that a mental health professional evaluate him for possible commitment to a treatment center before he is released from jail.
Meanwhile, Melissa Mong, manager of Painters Alley in Freeland, said construction workers have been working all day to frame the front and a doorway so that the building can be secured. The business was open today but will likely be closed tomorrow for repairs.
Mong said she came to work early this morning and was shocked to find a giant hole in the front of the business and an ice cream truck parked nearby.
“It was scary,” she said. “I was like, ‘My store. My store. Oh no!’”
A deputy’s report on the incident states that Steward admitted he entered the Whidbey Island Ice Cream store at night, taking the keys to the delivery truck. He drove the truck through a chain-link fence at Frontier Lumber, taking out about 200 feet of fence and posts; the collision launched a support pole through the canopy of a pickup truck, the report states. He then drove through a gate.
Steward said he decided to return the truck and was driving through the parking lot of the plaza when he thought bugs were on his head, which caused him to drive through the front doors of the paint shop, the report states. He then backed the truck out, got out and called 911.
