Theft Suspect Back In Trouble After Latest Arrest

A theft suspect is in even more trouble after he was arrested for breaking into a pair of cars Sunday night outside of a Mentor business, Mentor Police Lt. Ken Zbiegien said.

On Sunday night, the co-owner of heard banging while in a camper parked by her business, Zbiegien said.

She looked out her camper window and saw a man -- thought to be Philip Crouse -- wearing a Carhartt jacket and sneaking by the building. She also noticed an unfamiliar maroon pickup truck, Zbiegien said.

The woman called police.

When police arrived, the man ran behind the building. However, they arrested him when he pulled his maroon pickup truck out of a neighboring business's driveway.

Crouse told police he had stopped in the area so he could urinate. But officers found wallets and a car stereo that had been taking from vehicles in the Ruff Neon parking lot, Zbiegien said.

"Tire tracks, shoe prints in the snow -- it all pointed to him," Zbiegien said.

Crouse, 48, of Painesville, was already out of jail on bond for a petty theft charge  from .

Crouse was charged with breaking and entering, theft, possession of criminal tools and criminal damaging. In this case, the "criminal tools" refer to a hammer police found with Crouse that they think he used to break into the cars, Zbiegien said.

Crouse will be arraigned today in Mentor Municipal Court. Crouse is also scheduled to have a hearing Feb. 6 in municipal court .

Mentor Police are investigating several other thefts from cars in the city. When asked if Krouse was a suspect in those cases, Zbiegien replied, "We're looking into that."

Crouse has a lengthy history of grand and petty theft. He was arrested in 2004 and charged with counts of theft, burglary and breaking and entering and disrupting public service in Lake County Court of Common Pleas.

A jury convicted him and he was sentenced to five years in prison.

However, he got back into trouble when he was released. He was convicted of theft twice in 2011 in Painesville Municipal Court.