A D.C. man has been sentenced to four years in prison after confessing to a string of car break-ins in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
According to The Washington Post, 48-year-old David Vines referred to himself as a "thief" and an "old fool" before being sentenced by D.C. Superior Court Judge Ronna L. Beck.
Vines was arrested in November. Prosecutors say that he has broken into dozens of Capitol Hill cars over the past decade. According to police, his final break-in netted him around $20 in loose change and some Metro farecards.
Vines had asked for the minimum mandatory one-year sentence, saying that he had liver cancer and didn't want to die in prison. Judge Beck disagreed.
"This sentence is not so much punishment as it is incapacitation to not have you in the community as the plague you have been," Beck told Vines, according to the Post.
Vines has been arrested 59 times over the past 30 years.
