Using cell phone towers, hotel records, rental car GPS locations and license plate readers, agents with the state Attorney General’s Office were able to catch a Florida man they believe was involved in at least 14 car break-ins in two counties.

Authorities charged Amahad K. Ware, 26, in October with numerous counts of trafficking, forgery, identity theft, access device fraud, theft from a vehicle and criminal damage to property. He was arraigned on Monday and ordered held on $500,000 bail.

Several car break-ins in parking lots in the area in early February 2022 appeared to be related, and the Attorney General’s Office’s Organized Crime Unit began working with local police, according to court documents. Wallets, IDs, checkbooks, cash, gift cards, and credit and debit cards were reported missing by their owners and sometimes later used fraudulently to make purchases or withdrawals from bank accounts.

On February 5, 2022, two women reported that their vehicles were broken into while parked at the Alpha Tennis and Fitness and Alpha Ice Complex in Harmar. Police were able to identify a GMC Terrain involved.

The next day, similar thefts were reported at Lynch Field in Greensburg and at Twin Lakes Park in Hempfield and Unity. A GMC Terrain was located near both break-ins, and police learned it had been rented by a woman from Florida.

Other thefts of this type were reported in North Fayette and Upper St. Clair on Feb. 9. The suspect vehicle was identified as an Audi Q5, police said. Authorities used license plate readers to track the SUV on Interstate 79 and questioned a woman inside the car who said she was paid $300 a day to rent vehicles.

She gave investigators two phone numbers of a man she knew as “James.” Those numbers eventually led police to Ware. They said they used surveillance video and images from businesses in the area to track his movements, as well as records from hotels, GPS devices and cell towers to determine that Ware was in the area at the time of the car break-ins, court records show.

During the investigation, Ware was arrested in Philadelphia after violating probation, an area where several similar thefts have been reported, police said.

No attorney for Ware was listed in online court records. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 11.

He has been accused of similar crimes in other parts of the country. Ware was arrested in 2019 in connection with a series of car break-ins and thefts in Idaho. Police described him at the time as a member of a traveling gang of thieves from another state.