Prolific Longview burglar sentenced to prison

LONGVIEW — A 44-year-old Longview man who says he’s committed over 200 burglaries is going prison.

The Longview Daily News reported that Robert Dean Pitkin has been sentenced to 18 years in prison following a series of court challenges and appeals. Pitkin was also ordered last week to pay $53,505 in restitution to 25 victims, among them a church, a college and a daycare. He prosecuted on 65 crimes.

This won’t be the first time Pitkin has been in prison. He served ten years for similar crimes. In 1998, he confessed to burglarizing 150 businesses and was convicted on 15 counts.

Pitkin told the newspaper that his first burglary came at the age of 13 in Oregon when he broke into a school principal’s home to unwrap Christmas presents.

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