Man who stole vehicles as a 17-year-old found in Florida with truck taken from Saukville

A man who as a 17-year-old stole multiple vehicles from Port Washington and Fredonia as he fled authorities has been arrested 10 years later with a truck stolen from the Town of Saukville.

Nathan M. Shively, 27, whose last address was in the Town of Grafton, is being held in the Nassau County Jail and Detention Center in Florida after being found hiding in the bed of the stolen pickup truck in October, according to a criminal complaint filed late last month in Ozaukee County Circuit Court.

In the truck were tools valued at $42,878.

Shively is charged as a repeat offender with felony theft.

A woman who was found in the pickup truck was arrested but has not been charged in Wisconsin.

According to the complaint, a man told an Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputy his black Ford F-250 was stolen from his home on Highway I on Oct. 10.

He said he had walked to his sister’s house for dinner at 5:15 p.m., and when he returned, the truck, which was unlocked and had the keys inside, was gone. In it, he said, were numerous Milwaukee tools.

On Oct. 28, the Ozaukee County sheriff’s deputy was notified by his counterparts in Nassau County that the stolen pickup truck was spotted in Florida with a tarp over the bed of the vehicle.

A Nassau County sheriff’s deputy found a woman sitting in the driver’s seat and, after arresting her, saw Shively get out of the bed of the truck and run away, the complaint states.

The woman identified Shively for the officer and said he has a history of stealing vehicles, according to the complaint.

Later that day, a police officer spotted Shively walking on a street in Fernandina Beach, Fla., and arrested him.

Shively was also charged last month with taking the debit card of his Town of Grafton roommate in 2022 and using it to steal $400 from him.

Shively’s roommate at the time told authorities that Shively was aware he kept his wallet in this vehicle and knew his PIN number because he had once let him use his debit card to buy food, according to the complaint charging Shively with identity theft.

The man said he texted Shively to ask him if he stole the card and Shively replied by apologizing for taking the money and saying he did it because he owed a drug dealer money, the complaint states.

Shively also told the man that he would understand if he reported the theft to authorities but then he would “go on the run,” according to the complaint.

Shively’s trouble with the law dates to 2014 when, as a 17-year-old, he pleaded guilty to stealing a vehicle from the Town of Grafton and damaging religious property for breaking windows at Advent Lutheran Church in Cedarburg.

Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams withheld a prison sentence and placed Shively on probation. As a condition of probation, she ordered him to serve time in jail and granted him Huber work-release privileges.

But according to a criminal complaint, that’s not where Shively’s troubles ended.

On Aug. 26, 2014, he was released from jail to go to work at a Port Washington restaurant even though he was not scheduled to work.

Instead of washing dishes at the restaurant, authorities believe he bought a bottle of rum and drank it in Upper Lake Park.

Shively returned to jail that night, and the next day was again released to go to work. This time he did not return to jail.

Three days later, a Port Washington police officer spotted and chased Shively near South Wisconsin and Chestnut streets but could not apprehend him.

Less than two hours later, police received a report that a Ford Expedition had been stolen from a driveway on West Oakland Avenue in Port.

On Sept. 6, 2014, a Port Washington police officer spotted the Expedition and pulled it over on Highway KK in the Town of Port Washington. The driver ran away, but a passenger in the vehicle told officers that the driver was Shively, who according to court records had never been issued a driver’s license.

Authorities, who found pills and a homemade marijuana bong in the Expedition, said it appeared someone had been living in the vehicle.

As police were searching for Shively, an officer heard a report on his radio of an accident involving a recently stolen car in Fredonia.

At the scene of the accident near Fredonia and Fillmore avenues, witnesses told authorities that the driver of a red Saturn had stalled the car on a hill. When the driver got out of the car, it rolled backward until it hit another vehicle and a handrail next to a house. Witnesses said the driver, who matched Shively’s description, ran away.

Authorities learned the Saturn had been stolen from a home on Highway KK in the Town of Port Washington, not far from where Shively was pulled over in the Expedition.

The day after the accident, a Fredonia man reported that a Ford Fusion he had been renting was stolen from his home on Wisconsin Street.

The car was found hours later in a restaurant parking lot in Fond du Lac County with Shively asleep inside of it. When confronted by a deputy, Shively gave a false name and struggled with deputies before being arrested.

Inside the car, authorities found wallets that had been stolen from vehicles in Fredonia. One of the wallets contained a credit card that was used to make an unauthorized purchase at a Walgreens store in Sheboygan.

Shively pleaded guilty to three counts of vehicle theft and one count of identity theft and was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison and 1-1/2 years of extended supervision.

In addition, his probation in the earlier car theft and church damages cases was revoked and he was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison and two years of extended supervision.