Madison police arrested a man on Jan. 11 for the second time in two weeks after surveillance footage showed him breaking into a car on East Washington Avenue.
The man, 52-year-old Dennis J. O’Brien, is suspected to have stolen property belonging to a 28-year-old woman, including a cell phone, according to a Madison Police Department incident report. Additionally, the Madison resident is thought to be involved in several other car thefts where windows were smashed and numerous items stolen.
"Since Nov. 25, MPD crime analysts have found 65 recorded incidents in the downtown area where car windows have been smashed out," Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain said in the report. "In many cases, property was removed from damaged vehicles."
DeSpain wrote that police believe O’Brien is responsible for many of the break-ins, as “numbers tend to spike when he is on the streets.”
Police first arrested O’Brien last month as a suspect in a car robbery on Carroll Street. When police arrested him, he allegedly possessed stolen property from another theft.
O’Brien is being held at Dane County Jail on new tentative charges of theft, damage to property, entry into locked vehicle and bail jumping.
