Charles Jenkins, 31, has been arrested in connection with incidents in Palmer and Ludlow.
This is an updated version of a story posted at 1:45 this afternoon.
As police search for a man suspected in a rash of vehicle break-ins, mostly at area gyms and health clubs in a number of Western Massachusetts communities, police in Ludlow and Palmer have identified the person held responsible for car break-ins in their towns.
East Longmeadow, Northampton, Belchertown, East Longmeadow, Palmer, Springfield and Westfield police have working together to investigate the breaks in which purses containing credit cards have been a common target.
East Longmeadow Sgt. Patrick T. Manley said surveillance video from a vehicle break-in at Century Fitness on North Main Street earlier this month has led to a suspect who is believed to have been driving a green Ford Explorer while committing a number of the break-ins.
Police traced that Explorer to a Westfield woman who had some type of relationship with the suspect, Manley said.
“He is not in her good graces anymore and he doesn’t have access to the vehicle and his whereabouts are unknown,” Manley said.
Some of the credit cards have been used at area stores to purchase gift cards and police have been analyzing surveillance photographs of the transactions to determine his identity, Manley said. The suspect is described as a heavy-set black male, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 tall, Manley said.
Meanwhile, Palmer police and Ludlow police identified the man suspected of a rash of recent car break-ins in their towns – Charles E. Jenkins, 31, who is currently being held in jail in Ludlow.
Jenkins is the same person who attempted to rob the Pride station on Center Street in Ludlow with a hypodermic needle on Sept. 30 that he said was filled with blood contaminated with AIDS, police said.
Palmer Detective Sgt. Scott E. Haley said that Jenkins has been charged with multiple counts of breaking and entering in the nighttime for stealing GPS devices, change, radios and other items from approximately 30 unlocked cars in the Lake Thompson and Brainerd Street neighborhoods.
Haley, who investigated the case along with Sgt. Rodney A. North, said Jenkins grew up in the Lake Thompson neighborhood, and was living in his car.
Ludlow Detective Sgt. Thomas F. Foye said Jenkins was arrested for shoplifting and heroin possession after he took a steak and cheese sandwich from the Cumberland Farms on Center Street on Oct. 5. Foye said police had been looking for Jenkins after a witness identified his 1995 Nissan Pathfinder near the scene of a car break-in.
Foye said Jenkins was apprehended after Officer Sean Knox noticed the Nissan outside the convenience store. As Knox monitored the vehicle, police got a call from the clerk about a man attempting to steal a sandwich. Detective Alison Metcalfe connected merchandise found in the car to a number of car breaks in Ludlow.
Jenkins also was charged with eight counts of breaking and entering into a motor vehicle in the nighttime, as well as attempt to commit a crime (armed robbery) and assault with a dangerous weapon (needle) in connection with the Sept. 30 incident at the Pride station on Center Street.
Foye said Jenkins later confessed to the car breaks and the incident at Pride.
Staff writer George Graham contributed to this report.