By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – A 22-year-old LaPlace man who told authorities he had committed a string of recent car and home burglaries to get money to satisfy a drug habit was booked Thursday with burglary, according to Kenner Police.

Christopher Maher of 445 Greenwood Drive was also charged with attempted burglary and possession of burglar’s tools, according to a release from the Kenner Police Department. He was arrested Thursday after an alert citizen spotted Maher trying to get into a vehicle in a south Kenner subdivision. The witness reported seeing Maher pulling on the driver’s door handle with one hand while prying at it with an unknown tool.

Officers arrived at the home, in the 3100 block of Kansas Avenue, just before midnight Thursday and found Maher with two pocketknives, a screwdriver, a mini flashlight and two cell phones. Detectives were able to connect Maher to two attempted burglaries and one vehicle burglary on the same Kenner street.

When interviewed by Kenner Police detectives Jeff Adams and Jesse Johnson, Maher admitted he committed the burglaries. He also confessed to a July 9 attempted home burglary on Emile Drive in Kenner where he kicked in the back door of a home of an elderly woman but fled the area when the alarm sounded. No one was home at the time.

Officer Michael Habeney is in charge of the vehicle burglary investigations. Anyone with information about any of the incidents connected to Maher or others can call the Kenner Police Department at 504-712-2222 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.