A good Samaritan is credited with helping Butler police nab a thief suspected in a series of vehicle break-ins this week.

Charles E. Crank, 53, of Salem, Ohio, about 1:50 a.m. Thursday was allegedly caught in the act, ransacking a car on College Street, police said.

A watchful neighbor, who police would not identify, had spotted the suspect in the car.

The concerned citizen ran up to the car and asked the man what he was doing.

When the neighbor didn’t like the answer, according to a police report, he advised Crank, “You’re staying put until I call police.”

Officers got there and found Crank with a bag that contained a woman’s coat, two global positioning system devices, a satellite radio, two cell phones and several phone chargers.

Stuffed in his pockets were women’s bracelets and a large amount of assorted coins.

Crank admitted to breaking into several cars and drinking at bars that night, court documents said. Police noted he had a strong smell of alcohol.

District Judge Sue Haggerty arraigned the defendant on charges of theft from a vehicle, receiving stolen property and public drunkenness. He is in the Butler County Prison on $15,000 bail.

Haggerty, meanwhile, also issued a warrant that allowed police to search the Second Street apartment where Crank had been staying in Butler.

In seeking the search warrant, police in court papers referred to “the many unsolved ransackings in the area that Crank was apprehended.”

It was not immediately known what, if anything, police seized from the apartment.