LINCOLN PARK — Police here arrested a 19-year-old resident on suspicion of multiple larcenies from motor vehicles.
Most occurred over the past two weeks in the area near Meijer, 3710 Dix. The thefts were from vehicles in the middle section of the city on streets including Progress, Farnham, New York, Myron, Moran and Kings Highway, as well as some in the store parking lot.
The arrest came Tuesday after a tip from the store’s night manager, who noticed a young man making repeated trips to its coin roll exchange machines and called police after the man tried to sell two Global Positioning System units to employees.
The man entered the store between 4:45 and 5 a.m. to cash one of slips from the machine for $25. The manager then saw him leave the building and pull on several vehicle door handles in the parking lot.
The man returned to the store after officers were called to the scene and in the process of filling out their report. He then was arrested, at which point police found several items inside a wallet inside the bag he was carrying. One was a Michigan identification card belonging to a Moran Street resident.
Other items inside the bag included a GPS unit, $11 cash, a cell phone and a cell phone car charger. Police said almost all of the stolen property from area vehicles has been recovered and identified by the rightful owners.
Police said at this point they are attributing as many as 25 thefts to the arrested man, but that they still are working out details of individual cases in order to determine the final number of charges that may be forthcoming.
Felony charges currently are being prepared for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
— Tom Tigani