Prosecutors filed a 43-count criminal complaint against an 18-year-old man.
Alex J. Skokan, Clintonville, is charged with 10 counts of burglary, two counts of theft, three counts of criminal damage to property, taking a vehicle without consent, arson, illegal possession of prescription drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The remaining counts are for misdemeanor and felony bail jumping.
According to the criminal complaint, Skokan allegedly broke into cars, homes and garages in Clintonville over a two-week period earlier this month.
At 1:25 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, Clintonville Police Officer Cody Rollin was dispatched to a home on 13th Street.
He spoke with a 65-year-old woman who said she had been sleeping in a living room chair when she felt someone touch her hand.
She thought it was her husband and said his name, but there was no response.
Again, she felt someone touch her hand, woke up and saw a stranger in her dark house. He fled on foot.
When she looked outside, she found a bottle of rum and three over-the-counter pain and allergy pills on the stoop.
She said the doors had not been locked that night.
Her husband and their large rottweiler were asleep in a bedroom on the main floor.
At 2:18 a.m. Rollin and Sgt. Matthew Wright were dispatched to an attempted break-in on 13th Street.
The suspect attempted to enter through the back door, then left on foot.
While Rollin was searching the area for the suspect, he came upon a crashed car at the intersection of 14th and 12th streets.
Rollin contacted the vehicle’s owner who said nobody should have been driving his vehicle at that hour.
The vehicle’s owner and his wife also told police that someone had entered their home that night and shined a flashlight in the wife’s eyes, waking her.
Later on Oct. 1, Capt. Dennis Schroeder spoke with a couple on 14th Street. They had been away from home since Friday. When they returned they found extensive damage to their home.
Schroeder reported that a TV mounted to the wall was smashed, there was broken glass in the living room and dining room, and the toaster oven had been left on.
Someone had also squirted shaving cream and hand lotion on the sheets, then covered the mess under a blanket.
The total damage was estimated at $18,000.
Officer Tyler Bartel and Sgt. Craig Bevernitz were dispatched to a home on East Madison Street at 2:34 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 14.
They spoke with a woman who said a loud noise woke her up and she believed somebody had entered the house. She said all the doors had been locked.
Police found that a dog door had been forced open.
On Oct. 16, a fire was started in a parked vehicle, a cell phone was stolen from a home on North Clinton Avenue, and Skokan was arrested after a woman on Brent Street saw him trying to break into her car while a second man attempted to break into her garage.
She confronted the two men, who then ran away, then called police and described one of the suspects as wearing an orange jacket.
Officers found Skokan with an orange jacket.
In the jacket, they found gabapentin, a prescription drug used to treat seizures and nerve damage.
A glass pot pipe that Skokan said belonged to him was found at the scene of an attempted burglary.
During the investigation, officers located security video that showed some of the vehicle break-ins. They identified the suspect as Skokan.
Officer Craig Kamke spoke with the owner of one of the vehicles caught on video. He said an entire bottle of glass cleaner had been dumped out on the driver’s seat.
A doorbell camera at a house on Madison Street also caught an image of Skokan in the neighborhood near the time of the Oct. 14 burglary.
When Schroeder questioned Skokan about the burglaries, Skokan reportedly said he used to live on 13th Street with his mother and knew the couple with the rottweiler on 13th Street.
According to the criminal complaint, Skokan said the wife had told him he could stop over at any time.
“I asked him if he thought that she would mean at this time of night,” Schroeder reported. “He said he didn’t think so.”
On Nov. 9, 2016, Skokan was charged in Waupaca County with misdemeanor theft and released from custody on a $2,000 signature bond with the condition that he not commit any more crimes.
On Sept. 18, 2017, Skokan was charged in Outagamie County with two felony counts of threatening an officer and cited for a first OWI. He was released from custody on Sept. 28 after posting a $2,000 cash bond.
Skokan is currently in Waupaca County jail on a $10,000 cash bond.