A 38-year-old San Francisco man with a prior history of home burglaries has been arrested and charged in a series of ten so-called hot prowl burglaries targeting wealthy neighborhoods in the city over the last month.Levi Michael Banks has been in police custody since last week in connection with ten hot prowl burglaries — burglaries that occur while occupants of a home are present — that occurred between September 26 and October 23, 2026. As the SF District Attorney's Office announced, Banks has been charged with ten counts of residential burglary, in addition to charges of vandalism, possession of stolen goods, and theft of access cards and card information.Victims in Noe Valley first reported a series of hot prowl burglaries on the morning of September 26, in which it seems wallets and/or credit cards were taken out of homes during overnight hours on several blocks of Noe, Elizabeth, and 24th streets. San Francisco police, by tracking purchases that were subsequently made using the victims' cards, were able to identify a suspect vehicle associated with the crimes and track it using Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data.Two homes on Jackson Street in Pacific Heights were subsequently targeted on October 13, with homeowners telling police they lost a combined $64,000 in stolen property. Yet another burglary occurred days later in nearby Presidio Heights, in a multi-unit dwelling in which each unit was reportedly targeted.Banks was reportedly caught after triggering a silent alarm at a home on the 3700 block of Clay Street on October 23. Police arrived on the scene, spotted the suspect vehicle they'd identified earlier, and surveilled it. Banks emerged from a nearby building and returned to the car around 4:36 am, according to police, at which point he was arrested.Officers then found a backpack containing clothing that Banks had allegedly been seen wearing in earlier surveillance footage, as well as $4,500 in cash, and personal identification belonging to some earlier victims.Banks was arraigned on October 27 and detained by the court, according to the DA's office, and his next court date is November 3.A Levi Banks who is the same age was last in court in San Francisco in July, facing threat charges after allegedly pulling a 9mm handgun and telling another man who he had seen beating a dog that if he saw him beat the dog, he would shoot him. According to a report from the incident, Banks has prior convictions for a 2022 home burglary, and a 2023 commercial burglary, along with a firearms charge from 2023. ...read more read less