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Local police picked up Michael Prisco at his home on a New Jersey State Police warrant on Saturday, NJSP Lt. Brian Polite told CLIFFVIEW PILOT this morning.
A State Police investigation into the theft of the batteries quickly pegged the 40-year-old Prisco as the prime suspect in the thefts, which occurred on Dec. 10, 19 and 22 at the East Rutherford sports complex, records show.
Prisco was being held on $35,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail.
He’s charged with four counts each of theft, criminal mischief with damage and possession of burglar tools ad defiant trespassing.
Prisco was also wanted on warrants out of North Bergen, Paterson and Morristown.
He was free on bail on charges of stealing worth several hundred dollars from New Jersey Department of Transportation yards in Mahwah and Upper Saddle River in July.
Prisco’s criminal history stretches back half of his adult life, to 1995.
He’s been charged with a host of offenses in Elmwood Park, Fort Lee, Hackensack, Hasbrouck Heights, Maywood, Paramus and Ridgefield Park, among other towns — many involving burglary, theft and drug possession, according to court records.
A decade ago, Prisco violated parole with a burglary arrest, records show. He also has probation violations and several criminal traffic offenses, most times for driving without a license or insurance.
In October 2013, detectives in his hometown charged Prisco with swiping more than $20,000 of copper and other materials from a Route 17 construction site — a little more than a week after he was charged with stealing copper wire from an NJ Transit yard in Denville.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF
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