On a wooded street, buried deep in a Columbia neighborhood, neighbors knew something was up when something that rarely happens happened---marked police cars showed up.
“I do remember something,” said Shari Chase, “Several police cars were here, and they did say they were looking for someone who had stolen a car. That went on in early winter I think.”
The man allegedly behind that crime, 19-year-old Kaishawn Johnson of Washington, D.C., who prosecutors linked to at least 45 different cases over a period of just four months last year. He's been indicted on 133 counts of property crimes, including 18 car thefts.
In addition to breaking into cars and stealing vehicles, police say Johnson also broke into houses to get car keys before he would take off in them.
“This person is somebody who would take a stolen car to go steal from other cars,” said Seth Hoffman of the Howard County Police Department, “so we had to piece all of the pieces together and really go back to the drawing board and connect all the dots and say, ‘This person is responsible for this.’”
A person now tied to more than a hundred alleged crimes with dozens of individual victims, not to mention putting entire neighborhoods on notice that he could strike anywhere at any time.
“It really disturbs me that someone just wants to take,” said Chase, “You never know what these people that you’re taking from are going through.”
Johnson is scheduled to make an initial appearance in court on March 7.
