Mount Olive Police say they got more than nine calls from people reporting car break-ins.
"Deterrence is the biggest thing. If they can't get in, they can't do any harm," said Mount Olive Police Chief Michael Cordileone.
The car break-ins began overnight. As for the suspect, hopes for a clean getaway faded fast because a couple of homeowners paid attention to alerts on their home surveillance cameras, and caught the suspect in action. It had been a very busy night for him.
"Through the course of the investigation, we realized we had probably about nine or 10 victims. We were able to locate a lot of the stolen items and the individual," Cordileone said.
Blaise Wiget, a 37-year-old resident of Budd Lake, is in custody and facing numerous charges, including burglary, theft and spitting at officers during the arrest process.
Chief Cordileone says it was way too easy for the break-ins to happen, because many of the cars the suspect targeted were unlocked.
"It's important to keep your doors locked. Both your car doors and your house doors. We had six or seven of those were motor vehicle burglaries, and one or two attempts to open house doors," Cordileone said.
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