Homeless man accused of vandalizing abandoned Coralville apartment
Lang
5/12/19
A homeless man faces charges that he vandalized an abandoned Coralville apartment.
Coralville Police were called to the 23rd Avenue apartment at 10am Thursday after its owners arrived to do work and found 29-year-old Michael Welker and a few other people inside. An acquaintance of Welker’s had abandoned the apartment about three weeks earlier. In that time, Welker allegedly drew and wrote all over the apartment walls, causing them to need to be repainted. Welker was arrested and charged with 2nd Degree Criminal Mischief and Trespassing.
Welker was also wanted in connection with a credit card scam from earlier this month. Police say he went into Smokin’ Joe’s on The Coralville Strip around 1pm on May 2nd and attempted to use half a credit card that had been reported stolen. Welker was unable to prove he was the owner of the card after it became stuck in the card reader. The owner of the card had already reported it as stolen and cancelled it.
Welker faces an additional charge of Unauthorized Use of a Credit Card. If convicted on all three counts, he faces a maximum of seven years in prison.
