Break-in suspect tracked with stolen credit card

MINT HILL, N.C. -- A man who ransacked more than a dozen cars this week may have been photographed minutes later using a stolen credit card, a detective said Wednesday.

Mint Hill Police Detective Anne Marie Garmon said investigators were reviewing surveillance images from two Ballantyne-area businesses taken early Tuesday morning.

The credit card was reported stolen from a car parked in a driveway in the Jefferson Colony neighborhood near Fairview Road and I-485.

At least 16 vehicles, all unlocked, were entered in the same area between midnight and 4 a.m. Tuesday.

GPS units, an iPod and coins were among the items reported stolen.

Windy Hanigan said the thefts are unusual in the neighborhood and her family had become lax in locking the car doors.

"You forget. And you start feeling a little bit lazy and not as careful," she said.

In the nearby Glencroft subdivision, Bill Toth said the crook took the time to select certain CDs from his SUV, leaving behind his wife’s collection of Latin music and a recording of "7 Habits of Highly Successful People."

"You never really think it’s going to happen here. I guess that’s why they target neighborhoods like this," Toth said.

Mint Hill Police said there have been 58 thefts from cars reported in 2008. There were 116 similar crimes reported in all of 2007.

Garmon said the images from the Petro Express on John J. Delaney Drive and the Harris Teeter at Ballantyne Commons of a possible suspect could be released early next week.