MOULTRIE, Ga. — A 17-year-old faces almost two dozen charges in connection with a string of car break-ins and his attempt to avoid arrest Monday.

Colquitt County sheriff’s investigator Sgt. Kat Johnson said on Thursday that the sheriff’s office had received an increasing number of entering auto and criminal trespass reports starting in late March or early April in the area of Shady Grove Road and Ruth Street and across Highway 319 on Doc Darbyshire and Sam Harrell roads.

Some of the car windows had been broken so the thief could get access, Johnson said.

One of the residences on Shady Grove Road had a video camera set up, and Johnson said the video caught an image of one of the break-ins. The person on the video was identified as 17-year-old Jaheed A’Sheem Ward, of 115 Shady Grove Road, she said.

Johnson confronted Ward at his residence, and he ran. Other deputies captured him after a short foot chase, she said, but he refused to comply with orders and resisted arrest.

A deputy’s incident report said he used his Taser on Ward three times in an effort to make him stop resisting.

During his flight, Johnson said, Ward threw a bottle away and it was recovered. The bottle contained a prescription medicine that was not his, and it was not in its original container, she said.

After his arrest, Ward was transported to the Colquitt County Justice Center, where Johnson said he confessed to all of the car break-ins during an interview with investigators.

Ward faces 21 charges, including eight counts of entering auto, six counts of obstruction of an officer, two counts of criminal attempt (to enter an automobile), and one count each of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, drugs must be in original container, possession of a Schedule 2 drug, criminal damage to property and forgery in the first degree.

Most of the charges are from the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office, but some also are from the Moultrie Police Department. Johnson said Ward fled on foot from a Moultrie police traffic stop in late April, and he’s accused of forgery for allegedly trying to cash a check in the city after stealing it from one of the cars he broke into in the county.