A 34-year-old Bainbridge Island man was charged with second-degree trafficking in stolen property after police claimed he sold an Apple MacBook Air laptop to a Bremerton pawn shop that was stolen during a Bainbridge car prowl.

Zachary Joseph Nelson was charged with the felony in Kitsap County District Court on Friday, Dec. 4.

According to court documents, the laptop was reported stolen on Oct. 30 after a Bainbridge resident said it had been taken along with a briefcase that had been left inside a vehicle that was parked at his house on Falk Road. The computer was valued at $1,000.

Police later learned the stolen computer had been sold at the Cash America store in Bremerton on Nov. 23, and Nelson had been paid $120 for the laptop.

An officer checked the laptop the next day and found that personal identification had been removed, but some files and WiFi log-in sessions still contained the owner’s name.

The owner came to the Bainbridge police station on Nov. 25 and said the laptop that had been recovered from the Cash America store was the one stolen from his vehicle.

Officers contacted Nelson just before 12:30 a.m. Dec. 4 at the Clearwater Casino.

Nelson allegedly told police that he had traded a tablet computer for the laptop from a person named “Sheila,” but did not know her last name or phone number.

He also told police that he didn’t steal the laptop, but an officer said he was not being arrested for the theft but for possessing and selling stolen property.

Conviction of second-degree possession of stolen property can result in a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.