A 24-year-old Stewartville has changed his plea to guilty for trying to steal a car to pull the car he’d been in out of the ditch.

Joshua Kyle Crews reached a plea agreement for felony theft of a motor vehicle in Mower County District Court on Friday.

According to court records, Mower County deputies responded to a resident reporting a man had walked onto his Bennington Township property and had started a 2004 Ford Excursion on his property around 11:45 p.m. on Dec. 14, 2016.

Deputies arrived to find Crews on the front lawn talking with the two people who’d called in the complaint. Crews was making nonsensical statements, claiming his grandfather was stuck in the ditch, that he’d paid one of the people $5,000 to pull his vehicle out of the ditch, and that the Excursion belonged to a friend.

One of the two residents told deputies he was sleeping when he heard the Excursion’s diesel engine start. He went outside and found Crews backing it up. The keys had been left in the unlocked truck, which the man was repairing at his shop.

The man confronted Crews, whom he didn’t know, and Crews asked the man to pull his car from the ditch.

Crews was arrested for motor vehicle theft and police found an empty syringe in his pocket. Police said he appeared to be under the influence of a controlled substance.

Just north of the residence on 760th Avenue, deputies found a 1997 Ford pickup in the east ditch. The Ford was running and a man was inside; however, it was not Crews’ grandfather.

Deputies then learned Crews was on parole with the Department of Corrections and on probation in Olmsted County, and his probation terms prohibit the use of mood-altering chemicals.

He tested positive for marijuana and methamphetamine at the jail.

His criminal record reflects a felony for motor vehicle theft in Olmsted County and receiving stolen property in Goodhue County.

Crews is set for sentencing on April 21.