PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Maryland (7News) — According to multiple sources, the number of carjackings by teenagers in the area has skyrocketed in the past few years, while one man, now 17, has become a serial offender.

Due to the teen’s age, 7News decided not to release his name.

We can report that the teenager has had numerous arrests for violent crimes dating back to 2020, when he was just 13 years old. Now, as an adult, he is accused of five car thefts and two armed robberies, as well as various gun crimes. He is also suspected of more than a dozen armed carjackings since August for which he has not been charged. The crimes were allegedly committed by the teenager, who wore an electronic ankle monitoring bracelet in an attempt to prevent crimes.

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Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson heads the Maryland State Attorneys Association. He can’t discuss specific juvenile cases, but in an interview he described a familiar pattern of rising juvenile crime.

“They’ve been taught and trained to have no consequences, a lack of responsibility, and then all of a sudden you get to the magical age of 18 and then the hammer falls,” Gibson said. “It’s really unfair to that child and unfair to the community.”

According to multiple sources and court documents, the teenager was part of a team of armed car thieves who held a gun to the face of a woman in her 60s and took her Cadillac in Temple Hills, Maryland, in early October.

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Sources told 7News the teen received an ankle bracelet from D.C. but was placed in a foster home in Prince George’s County, but Maryland officials were never notified of his presence in the state. This means that no one monitors his activities and he is free to commit crimes.

Maryland Department of Children’s Services Director Vincent Schiraldi did not talk about this particular case in a recent interview on a variety of topics, arguing that ankle bracelets and community placement were effective in 19 of 20 cases.

“It’s easy to look in the rearview mirror and say something happened, ‘Oh, this system must not be working,'” Schiraldi said. “What we’re always trying to do is try to get better and better at finding out which kids it’s originating from,” Schiraldi said. Which children should be sent home should be detained.”

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The teen, who is accused of multiple felonies, is currently being held in the Prince George’s County Detention Center on adult charges, according to sources.