Isaiah L. Prue, charged this fall with burglarizing homes and cars from East Lyme to Stonington, told police he doesn't have a drug habit but has been breaking into houses and cars his entire life, "just for money."

During his recent crime spree, Prue, 27, said he used the internet to identify "wealthy neighborhoods" or "expensive houses for sale." He said he went out at night to steal from cars and sometimes ended up breaking into occupied homes.

"He said he would sometimes see items of value inside homes, so he would enter homes, while he assumed people were home sleeping, to steal things," said an arrest warrant affidavit.

Prue told police he had moved back to the area in 2014 from Florida, where public records indicate he was incarcerated in Osceola County for grand theft and burglaries of unoccupied and occupied buildings.

His local criminal record includes a conviction for first-degree criminal trespass and interfering with police in 2014, when Norwich police said he attempted to burglarize an occupied home and led police on a foot chase. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison.

Prue was living at 22 Amity St., Apt. A, New London, when he was arrested in September in connection with 12 residential burglaries in East Lyme and Stonington. Since then, he has accrued charges in Groton, Ledyard, Montville and Norwich.

Arrest warrant affidavits in the cases indicate that police linked him to several of the crimes because he left behind footprints from a pair of Nike Air Force I basketball shoes and made a "stippling pattern" on surfaces with the gloves he wore. He broke into homes through open doors or by removing screen windows and prying open screen doors, according to the warrants. He stole loose coins from cars, cash from purses and other items that he or his girlfriend attempted to sell, according to the warrants. 

Prue is being held in lieu of $310,000 at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution and has been making regular appearances in New London Superior Court, where he is represented by Public Defender Kevin C. Barrs. He is charged with multiple counts of burglary and larceny, stealing a firearm and criminal mischief.

During a court appearance this week, Ledyard Police served him with a warrant charging him with breaking into homes on Pheasant Run Drive in Gales Ferry in July and taking a butcher knife from the kitchen of one dwelling. Questioned about the burglaries, he admitted he was in the area.

"There was a night I hit like almost every car on Route 12," he said.

He went on to say he had broken into one of the Gales Ferry houses, which he said "coincidentally" belonged to his girlfriend's cousin's girlfriend, and entered through an open garage door. He said he checked for an exit route, in case someone was in the house, and took dresser drawers out and put them on a bed to look for valuables. He said it was dark and he was scared, so he took a knife in case he was attacked. He said he crept away when a woman asked "Who's there?" and said she could hear him.

According to the warrant, residents of the Gales Ferry neighborhood reported seeing two people running across lawns and through backyards. A sergeant responding to one of the burglaries saw a blue Pontiac speeding away from the area. The car was registered to Prue's girlfriend, Amie Veal, who denied involvement in the burglaries. Veal said she had been driving around the area to clear her head and had sped from police because her insurance had expired, according to the affidavit.

In Stonington, where he is charged with five burglaries, Prue admitted going into the Deans Mill School on Aug. 26 and stealing a public announcement system. He also confessed to entering a Pequot Trail home while the owners slept and stealing an acoustic guitar and $80 in cash from the homeowner's purse.

That same night, he said he parked at a house Greenhaven Road in Pawcatuck, where he saw somebody sleeping on a couch and took a loaded Ruger revolver from an unlocked pickup truck in the driveway.

In September, East Lyme Police arrested him after they said he attempted to illegally enter a house on Old Black Point Road, just hours after another burglary in which he is suspected.

Police said they are continuing to investigate.

k.florin@theday.com