A 29-year-old transient was charged with first-degree criminal impersonation Friday in Jefferson County County Superior Court after he allegedly pretended to be someone else when police stopped to question him about smashing the window of a Port Townsend tobacco shop with a golf club.

Luke Oliver Lindsey was arrested by Port Townsend police just before 7 p.m. Thursday,
Oct. 21 after a resident who lives near Smoker Friendly on West Sims Way reported hearing the sound of breaking glass and then seeing a man in dark clothing walking away carrying a bat-type object.

An officer visited the tobacco shop and discovered a window next to the front door had been smashed. Close by, amid the broken glass from the window, was the head of a golf club and part of the shaft.

An employee at the nearby Sea Breeze Shell gas station also told police she had seen a man in the store carrying something that looked like a golf club.

During the search for the clubber , a sergeant with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office found a man near All City Auto Body who matched the description of the person seen with the golf club.

The man was carrying a broken golf club, which he said he had found about a half hour earlier.

As police continued to question him, he gave a false name and birthdate, but his true identity was discovered when he was booked into jail for malicious mischief.

Lindsey continued to claim to be someone else, and officers believed he did not want to give his real name because he had a warrant for his arrest in Clallam County.

Officers later matched the head of the golf club to the gold golf club shaft that Lindsey had in his possession at the time he was stopped by police.

Lindsey was allegedly intoxicated at the time of his arrest and was taken to Jefferson Healthcare to be cleared to go to jail, but he refused to get out of the patrol car for the examination. A doctor and a nurse eventually examined him from outside the police car and he was then booked into jail.

At the county jail in Port Hadlock, Lindsey was jailed on $5,000 bail.

Lindsey is facing one felony charge of first-degree criminal impersonation, and two gross misdemeanors of third-degree malicious mischief and making false/misleading statements to a public servant.

Lindsey was described in court documents as a transient from Port Angeles. His last known address was in Port Ludlow.

His trial was set for Jan. 31.