Arrest made in connection to parking pass crime spree near Nats Park, police say

WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - DC Police say they've arrested a man who may be responsible for a string of car break-ins near Nationals Park -- but that's only part of the story.

Police don't believe the man was after money or other valuables, rather, he was looking for parking passes.

"This is what living next to the Nationals stadium get you," Katherine Jefferson said in early February after walking out of her Southwest DC home to find her car window smashed. Only one thing was missing from the car.

"They didn't look for nothing else," Jefferson said. "They just came for that visitors pass."

The passes are free for residents who apply online, but Jefferson and her neighbors said someone was breaking into cars and stealing the passes, all so they could then sell them to Nationals fans who were looking for cheap parking.

"It's been happening a lot around here," said Greg Jones, one of Jefferson's neighbors who said his visitors pass had been stolen too.

Now though, some potentially good news: police said they put together a team to look for whoever was responsible for the car break-in's and ended up arresting six people. One of them, they think, maybe a serial parking pass thief because, since his arrest, no other parking passes have been reported stolen.

"I feel really good," Jefferson said of the arrest. "I had to call all of my family and tell them."

It remains to be seen whether the break-ins will stop for good. Tuesday some neighbors said they're skeptical.