SWAMPSCOTT — For a thief in the middle of the night, it was the bounty of all bounties.
First one unlocked car. Then another. And another.
By the time he or she was done, the crook had broken into 57 vehicles and walked off with a haul of money, cell phones, radios, iPods and GPS devices.
"I've never seen that many in one night," police Sgt. Tim Cassidy said. "That's got to be a record."
Patrolman Tom Hennessey spotted the first break-in on Monday at 3:21 a.m. on Fuller Avenue near the middle school.
"He saw a door open just a hair, checked it and saw it had been broken into," Cassidy said.
Twenty minutes later on the same street, Patrolman Matthew MacDonald found another car that appeared to have been sacked.
Six minutes after that, Hennessey found another on Bay View Avenue.
Then, for the next four hours, Hennessey, MacDonald and Patrolman Michael Frayler discovered likely break-ins almost every two or three minutes. By the time the sun came up, residents were coming to the police station to report more break-ins.
In all, 57 vehicles on 14 streets were hit, mostly in the neighborhood around the middle school. Rockland Street had at least 10 break-ins, according to the police log.
Some cars had no valuables inside. In other cases, the thief filched only coins. Cassidy said he didn't know the total haul.
Cassidy said the culprit most likely went through the streets pulling on door handles to see if they were locked. If they were, he just went on to the next car until he found one unlocked.
"It's amazing no alarms went off," he said.
Cassidy said the thefts are under investigation, but police have no suspects at this point.
