In brief: Thieves targeting idling vehicles

Cars left to warm up outside homes continue to prove irresistible targets for thieves.

A Coeur d’Alene man reported his Nissan Maxima stolen Sunday after he started it around 5:20 p.m. and went back inside his home. He had left the doors unlocked, according to a Coeur d’Alene police report.

Early Friday morning, a Post Falls woman reported her Chevrolet Impala was stolen while it was running in her driveway as she got ready for work.

The woman told a Kootenai County sheriff’s deputy she had noticed a large “box-style” vehicle drive by her house and slow down after she started her car. When she came back out 10 minutes later, her car was gone.

Three men charged in shooting death

TACOMA – Pierce County prosecutor Mark Lindquist said a man was killed for allegedly stealing a car in a case of what he calls “vigilante justice run amok.”

The prosecutor said 24-year-old Robert Ward was shot to death Feb. 16 in Fredrickson, Wash., after he showed up at a phony drug deal in a car he had reportedly stolen. Investigators said three men had set up the meeting intending to beat him up and take the car back.

But when Ward attempted to drive away, he was fatally shot.

One suspect, 25-year-old Nathan Stevenson, pleaded not guilty last week to murder charges. The two other men, 28-year-old Presley Lind and 32-year-old Christopher Olsen, were charged Monday with murder. Lind was to be arraigned Monday in Pierce County Superior Court.

Olsen is accused of being the shooter. He was arrested Saturday in Post Falls.