Police arrested a homeless man after he went on a naked littering spree through downtown Port Townsend.

David Dean Willhoite, 28, was charged with second-degree malicious mischief for damaging a police car, as well as resisting arrest, obstructing a law enforcement officer, and littering last week in Jefferson County Superior Court.

Willhoite’s legal troubles began when Port Townsend police were called to the 1400 block of Adams Street just after 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11 after getting a report of a man in a silver sedan who was throwing trash out of his car.

The person who called police said the man in the car had gotten verbally aggressive when he was confronted about his littering. The litterbug was described as a man in his 20s or 30s who was in the area “all the time.”

An officer found Willhoite in a parked silver Hyundai and watched as he allegedly threw items out of the sedan and onto the ground.

He told the officer he was cleaning out his car and had COVID-19.

When advised by the police officer that he would be cited for littering, “he scoffed at me, told me go ahead, but he wasn’t going to stop throwing his garbage onto the ground,” the officer wrote in a report on the incident.

“Willhoite was verbally abusive, aggressive, and defiant with me throughout the incident. He was clearly acting erratic for unknown reasons,” the officer added.

As the officer sat in his vehicle, Willhoite got out of the Hyundai and another officer could see he was naked.

Willhoite was told to get back into his car, and he did. He then started his car and drove away. Police ordered him to stop, but he kept going.

Additional calls quickly came in to 911 dispatchers about a man who was in the downtown area, throwing garbage out of his vehicle and running around naked.

Officers found Willhoite had parked in front of Elevated Ice Cream, tossed a large pile of garbage into the street, and then climbed into the back seat of his car to go to sleep.

When police arrived, he jumped back into the front seat and drove away.

An officer soon found the Hyundai parked in the middle of the intersection at Sims Way and Kearney Street.

Police pulled up behind Willhoite and “chirped” the patrol car’s siren in an attempt to get Willhoite to move his vehicle, but he started yelling instead.

When an officer approached and asked why Willhoite had parked in the middle of the intersection, “Willhoite asked if I had brought him gas, and I said no,” the officer wrote in his report.

“He said he had no use for me then and told me to leave him alone,” the officer added.

When told he had to move his car because it was blocking traffic, Willhoite said no, that he didn’t need to move, and asked to be arrested.

He was asked to get out of the car, and, still naked, he did. He was wrapped in a blanket and put into a patrol car.

Willhoite was then taken to Jefferson Healthcare for an evaluation, but upon arrival, officers discovered he had slipped his handcuffed hands from behind to the front of his body.

An officer decided to leave him in the police car due to his erratic behavior so emergency room personnel could do their evaluation safely.

When the rear window was lowered so hospital personnel could talk to him, Willhoite began yelling and tried to climb out of the window. He said he wouldn’t consent to any medical tests or treatment, according to a police report, and began yelling and beating on the window.

Willhoite then grabbed the window with his hands, “and began to violently see-saw it back and forth,” an officer wrote in his report.

The window of the police car shattered, causing minor cuts on one of Willhoite’s hands.

Willhoite then became compliant, and he was eventually taken to Jefferson County Jail, where he was booked for second-degree malicious mischief, failing to stop/obey a law officer, obstructing a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and two counts of littering.

Police then discovered Willhoite had damaged the emergency lights in the back of the patrol car and pulled off the door handles.

The cost of the repairs had not yet been estimated.