NORFOLK, Va. — A man was sentenced to over a year for breaking into cars on Old Dominion University's campus on Thursday, the Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney's Office said.
32-year-old Derek Williams Britton pleaded guilty to felony credit card theft and multiple misdemeanor larceny and vehicle tampering charges from breaking into three cars parked on the ODU campus.
According to police, on March 15th, 16th and 19th, Britton broke into several parked cars on ODU's campus. One was parked inside a garage on 43rd Street, one parked along 43rd Street, and another on 45th Street. He stole a tablet, tools, laptops, cash, IDs, and credit cards.
A video surveillance caught Britton and the car he drove in on camera breaking into the cars. Norfolk police issued a BOLO with Briton's description.
On March 22, an officer identified him as the person of interest after approaching Briton when he noticed he was improperly parked. The officer arrested Britton.
Police recovered a lot of the items he stole after conducting a search of his car.
Britton accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to serve one year and two months in prison, with another one year and 10 months in prison suspended on the felony charge and all jail time suspended on the misdemeanor charges conditioned on his uniform good behavior for three years and compliance with probation for two years following his release.
“Too many people have their belongings stolen from their cars. While it is difficult to catch the people who are doing the stealing and many go uncaught, case high-quality cameras and good police work allowed the Old Dominion University Police Department to solve these cases,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi.
