SAN ANTONIO – Antonio Hernandez, 36, is accused of using his car to smash his way into East Side businesses, hitting the same store twice within a matter of hours.
Officer Douglas Greene, a San Antonio Police Department spokesman, said detectives obtained clues from store surveillance video which led them to Hernandez.
He was arrested Friday morning at his home on the East Side, just hours after the final burglary.
Greene said shortly after midnight Friday, officers responded to Dollar General on N. New Braunfels Avenue near Houston Street and found the front door smashed and knocked off its hinges.
"They were able to determine that the actor backed his vehicle into the front door and that's how he was able to gain entry," Greene said.
Once inside, the suspect grabbed a load of beer and ran out of the building, dropping beer cans along the way.
Repairs later were made to the building, but it didn't stay intact for long.
"Shortly after that repair was done with -- we're talking about minutes -- the same actor returned to the location and did the same thing," Greene said.
Officers who had been patrolling the area, keeping close watch on the business, discovered the damage the second time.
They said video shows the burglar escaping with a load of more than 100 DVDs.
Later, Greene said, investigators learned that their suspect had not sat idle in between the break-ins.
"Around 1:47 this morning, we had another call for the Valero (Corner Store) at the 1900 block of South New Braunfels," he said. "Evidence there seemed to match the description of the same burglar at the Dollar General."
Greene said investigators were able to piece together clues from the surveillance video, and identified Hernandez as their suspect.
He was booked into the Bexar County jail on three counts of burglary.
Police said Hernandez also had an outstanding warrant for driving while intoxicated.
Records show he has had multiple arrests for that offense.