Auto theft has soared in Seattle in 2010 but East Precinct cops think they may have put a dent in Capitol Hill’s trends with the March arrest of Curtis Lee Rosenthal. Our partner site SeattleCrime.com explains what’s happening across the city:

In 2005, King County prosecutors began aggressively pursuing prolific car thieves, rush-filing and stacking cases to try to get lengthier sentences for thieves.

The effort worked, and auto theft rates dropped 15 percent in a year.

However, law enforcement sources tell Seattlecrime that one prosecutors began hunting auto thieves, a number of prolific criminals simply simply switched to burglarizing homes, which would certainly account for the 9% increase in burglaries in 2008 and 3% increase last year.

Now that prosecutors have begun an initiative to go after burglars—just as they did with auto thieves—sources tell us that criminals who made a living stealing TVs and jewelry from homes are going back to boosting cars.

According to court documents, Rosenthal has a rap sheet that might qualify him for either end of the burglary-car prowl-car theft continuum. Charged with four counts including identify theft, drug possession, possession of stolen property and auto theft for his most recent arrest, Rosenthal has been convicted 15 times since 1990, including his most recent conviction in February 2008 for auto theft. He was also booked into King County Jail in late December 2009 for a car prowl.

The current charges against Rosenthal stem from a prowl of a car from the Swedish Hospital parking garage in early March. According to court documents, Rosenthal busted out the car window and stole a gym bag from the backseat. Inside the bag was a MasterCard. According to the SPD, Rosenthal was seen on surveillance video from the Madison McDonald’s using the card to $8.02 worth of fast food.

The 41-year-old Rosenthal is apparently rather recognizable. A 5’11”, 160-pound white male, Rosenthal was spotted in the McDonald’s video by a detective already investigating him for another crime. According to the court documents, Rosenthal was arrested without incident only a few days after a bulletin was circulated to officers with his photo.

According to the documents, detectives also wanted to talk to Rosenthal about a blue Honda Accord stolen in February. During one interview, the document says Rosenthal admitted to the car theft and told detectives that he boosted cars to support his drug habit, often targeting electronics that he sold to an area smoke shop.

The court documents describe Rosenthal as a prolific car prowler who has “significantly impacted the Capital Hill (sic) area and downtown Seattle” — so prolific that the county prosecutor wrote that “time constraints” prevented the full documentation of the “numerous other on.going SPD Investigations in the East and West Precincts” that Rosenthal is a suspect in.

The reports also note that one crime Rosenthal is charged with might help explain his notoriety in the precinct. On March 9, police say Rosenthal broke into a vehicle in a parking garage at 3rd and Stewart and stole a credit card. The car and card’s owner? An SPD officer working off-duty downtown.

Rosenthal was scheduled to have a continuation of his arraignment yesterday afternoon. We’ll follow up as the court process plays out.