ZELIENOPLE — An alleged thief’s tobacco habit apparently helped land him behind bars on 119 criminal charges.

Zelienople police this week arrested 29-year-old Shawn Patrick Kenney in connection with a series of vehicle and garage break-ins around Thanksgiving.

In one of those incidents, he allegedly stole credit cards from a woman’s purse that she had left overnight in her car. He is accused of using one of the cards at several stores.

Police said they eventually identified Kenney from surveillance video inside one of those stores — a local Smoker Friendly shop.

Nearly three weeks after they obtained an arrest warrant, police picked up their suspect Monday.

Kenney is charged with 30 counts each of theft and theft from a vehicle; 40 counts of receiving stolen property; five counts each of trespass, access device fraud and forgery; and four counts of criminal mischief.

He is in the Butler County Prison on $15,000 bail while awaiting his preliminary hearing set for 9 a.m. Tuesday at the office of District Judge Wayne Seibel in Evans City.

Beginning at 10 a.m. Nov. 26, police started getting calls from residents reporting their vehicles had been broken into overnight and ransacked, according to court documents.

A woman on Hazel Street found that someone had busted out a passenger-side window and gotten into her sport utility vehicle.

The thief made off with numerous items, including the contents of her purse and a brief case.

The brief case contained more than $600 in currency, police said. The purse had credits cards and several gift cards in it.

In all, documents said, the value of the items taken was $2,342.

Police said the woman soon learned that her American Express card taken from the purse had already been used at Smoker Friendly, Walmart, Best Buy and 7-Eleven to make combined $1,232 in fraudulent purchases.

Police suspect Kenney also broke into a dump truck at a home in the 100 block of McKim Street and took about $100 in change.

Additionally, he allegedly entered garages at one home in the 200 block of McKim Street and another one on Hazel Street. Police allege he broke into a vehicle at the McKim Street garage and a truck outside the Hazel Street garage but the owners did not report anything missing.

The defendant allegedly broke into yet another vehicle on Hazel Street, police said, but he did not take any property.