A 25-year-old West Liberty man was arrested early Tuesday after Bellefontaine police found him passed out behind the wheel of a pickup truck and discovered he had an outstanding warrant.
According to the Bellefontaine Police Department, officers on patrol around 1:40 a.m. spotted a pickup truck stopped in the 200 block of West Columbus Avenue near the railroad crossing.
The truck was facing the wrong direction and wasn’t moving, even though there was no train and the crossing gates were not down.
The driver, Nathan Nicholl, was found passed out behind the wheel with a cell phone in his hands.
Officers also saw a loaded 9mm handgun on his lap and called for more law enforcement to respond to the scene before waking him up.
A dog was also inside the truck.
Nicholl told officers an exhaust leak was causing fumes to get inside the truck, making him pass out.
He also said he had recently crashed the truck after passing out while driving.
Police gave Nicholl field sobriety tests and said he showed no signs of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Officers told Nicholl he could not drive the truck until the exhaust problem was fixed and asked him to call someone for a ride.
While checking his information, police learned Nicholl had an active warrant from Champaign County for failing to appear in court on an original charge of fictitious registration.
He was arrested on the warrant without incident.
A family member later arrived to take the handgun and the dog.
Nicholl was later turned over to the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office.
