BREAKING: Serial Rapist Retired

For all the griping I’ve done lately (and it’s been legit), Columbus police deserve credit for this one… They never gave up… They kept working and now a dangerous piece of trash is off our streets…

A man suspected of raping at least seven women is in police custody… The man, whose name is not being reported by 10TV News, is a registered sex offender and has been in jail since Dec. 13 when officers said he robbed a Westerville tanning salon…

"We have a potential suspect," said Columbus police Sgt. Rich Weiner. "We have evidence in some of these crimes so we're just waiting on forensics to come back."

A stolen cell phone gave police their lead… According to court records, the rapist stole the cell phone of one of the victims and then sent "sexually explicit texts" to the list of contacts. When the victim called her phone, the man who answered it told her that he "could have raped her while she was sleeping."

Then, the man agreed to leave the phone at a bus stop located near downtown's North Market, court records showed. One of the numbers called came back to an address on Delbert Road, located on the northeast side. According to court records, the call came in close proximity to where a previous rape victim's cell phone that was also stolen "pinged off a tower" nearby "soon after the rape."

According to court records, undercover police officers started tracking the suspect's movements from Nov. 26 through the tanning salon robbery. The clerk told 10TV News that the man who robbed her at gunpoint forced her to a back room before fleeing out the back door. Police took him into custody moments later, Kocot reported.

Investigators believe the same man has raped or sexually assaulted seven women since June 4, with most of the attacks occurring on the city's northwest side. Investigators said that they believed ATM surveillance photos of the rapist would be the key to cracking the case. The images were captured after one of the attacks and showed the rapist using a debit card that he stole from a victim.

The suspected rapist was convicted of two rapes in 1984, Kocot reported. Both cases had similarities to the Northwest Serial Rapist. In one case, the woman told police that the man broke into her home, put a gun to against her head and said he would not shoot her as long as she cooperated. He also lied and said that he had a partner in another room who was holding a gun to her daughter's head.

In the other case, the man broke into a woman's house and threatened her with a knife and threatened to harm her daughter if she did not cooperate. The Northwest Serial Rapist also used a gun and knife in his attacks…