Stolen Girl Scout cookies, a tie-dyed shirt and Air Jordan gym shoes led Cincinnati police to a Georgetown, Ohio, man they say may be responsible for 30 or more thefts in the last two weeks at downtown businesses.

        James Douglas Jones, 26, was charged Tuesday in two break-ins, at a mortgage company and Cincinnati Art Galleries. Investigators on Wednesday added three counts of burglary and 12 of breaking and entering. And they still expect to add more, said District 1 Detective Pat Galligan.

        Mr. Jones was spotted because an officer broadcast the description a witness gave of a man who'd broken into a car: red hair and a tie-dyed shirt. Other officers spotted and stopped him.

        From there, other clues from the serial burglaries started matching up, Detective Galligan said, like Mr. Jones' scratched arms, allegedly from breaking out windows, and the sole pattern from the bottom of his Michael Jordan Nikes. Officers had found the same shoe print at one of the break-ins.

        “Everything just fell into place,” the detective said.

        Investigators said Mr. Jones told them he'd gotten addicted to crack about two weeks ago after finding a rock of the drug and a crack pipe in a hotel room, and trying it. He said he'd lost 30 pounds in that time, and hadn't eaten or slept since. Surveillance video shows him eating Girl Scout cookies in one office and taking drinks from refrigerators in many of the incidents, Detective Galligan said.

        Sometimes, police said, he worked with a partner. Mark Salter, 44, whose address is listed as the Drop Inn Center shelter in Over-the-Rhine, is charged with breaking and entering, receiving stolen property and possession of criminal tools.

        Detectives are working with the department's statistics staff to list all downtown break-ins and see to which others Mr. Jones and Mr. Salter might be linked.

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