BATON ROUGE - A man with a long history of arrests for breaking into school buildings was taken into custody again Wednesday for a string of similar burglaries at East Baton Rouge campuses.

Arrest records show Jamie Watson, 42, of Deridder was tied to the latest crimes spanning November 2021 to February 2022.

According to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, deputies used evidence from a Jan. 4 break-in at Istrouma High School to identify him. There, Watson allegedly used a crowbar to force his way into a school building around 7 p.m. that night.  Once inside, deputies said he broke into two vending machines inside the teacher's lounge and made off with roughly $100 in cash. 

The department noted repairs for the machines cost roughly $1,000 in total. 

On Jan. 11 2022, deputies also found Watson inside Broadmoor High School around 1 a.m., where he told deputies he forced his way into the building because it was warm. He was issued a misdemeanor summons for that incident and released. 

The arrest documents said Watson was arrested previously in 2012 and 2018 for near-identical crimes at other East Baton Rouge schools. At the time, Watson admitted to the break-ins and said he was stealing the money because of his gambling addiction. 

Watson was booked Wednesday for theft, simple criminal damage to property and simple burglary.