Suspect arrested in west-side auto burglaries

A call of an auto burglary in progress this morning led Lawrence Police to arrest a Topeka man suspected of committing at least two west-side auto thefts and eight auto burglaries in recent days.Western Lawrence has seen a rash of auto burglaries in the past week, including 13 that happened April 2 and 3 in the same area.”They are still investigating this and investigating if there are any other people involved, if it’s just this person, how many burglaries there are and what burglaries are tied to this,” Lawrence Police spokeswoman Kim Murphree said.The suspect, identified as a 29-year-old Topeka resident, was being held Monday evening in the Douglas County Jail on eight counts of auto burglary, eight counts of theft, two counts of auto theft, five counts of criminal damage, and fleeing to elude police.Those cases include an April 3 auto theft in the 5200 block of Harvard Road, in which a family’s Saab was stolen out of their open garage while they slept inside. Police recovered the Saab on Monday near Crestline Drive and Peterson Road based on information they developed from the arrest.