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Court records: Man says he didn’t know trailer was stolen

Witness alerted police after seeing Columbian’s story

By Jessica Prokop, Columbian Local News Editor
Published: March 30, 2017, 8:24pm

A Vancouver man says he bought Joshua Nickelsen’s camper trailer and then dumped it in Hazel Dell after learning from his cousin that it was stolen, court records show.

Joshua S. Manning, 36, told Clark County sheriff’s deputies that he bought the 4-by-8-foot teardrop trailer — which Nickelsen plans to use for a cross-country trip — from a “guy in Portland” and paid $200 for it, a probable cause affidavit filed in Clark County Superior Court states.

The trailer was stolen sometime early Wednesday morning from in front of Nickelsen’s parents’ house in Camas. He had arrived at his parents’ house about 3:15 a.m. from work and didn’t see the trailer, which had been parked there for the past three months. Nickelsen purchased the trailer for about $2,000 and has spent the past few months customizing it for his trip with help from his father.

Deputies were dispatched to the stolen trailer Wednesday afternoon after a witness called it in. The witness said he saw a black truck full of garbage dump a trailer that he recognized from The Columbian’s story. They found the trailer abandoned on Northeast 86th Street and confirmed it was the one stolen from Camas, the affidavit said.

The black truck and its driver, identified as Manning, were located at a thrift store near 78th Street and Highway 99, court documents state.

Nickelsen told The Columbian on Wednesday that when he reunited with his trailer, it was mostly empty. It had contained pictures, books and mementos. He was told by the sheriff’s office that it was all discarded in a dumpster behind a K-Mart on Northeast Sandy Boulevard in Portland.

His belongings had not been recovered as of Wednesday night, Nickelsen told The Columbian in an email.

“No luck at the dumpsters behind K-Mart. I guess that was made up or inaccurate. My things are a loss, but I’m still grateful,” he wrote.

Manning made a first appearance Thursday morning in Superior Court on suspicion of second-degree possession of stolen property.

Judge Scott Collier appointed him an attorney and set bail at $5,000. He will be arraigned April 13.

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