MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Kenneth Rushing doesn’t pick just any car to target.

“If it’s an older car, yes I’ll take it. Like a ’99 to 2012,” Rushing said. His thick Bayou-esque accent forces us to lean in closer to understand him as he talks from inside Mobile County Metro Jail.

“I wouldn’t waste my time. If the door’s locked and the alarm goes off like ‘beep, beep, beep,’ I haul butt,” Rushing said with a smile. “I run!”

Rushing knows better than to waste his time bashing in windows or prying open doors, he just wants an easy profit.

“I just wanted my drug money,” Rushing said. “If the drug money wasn’t there, I’d move on to the next car.”

Like most criminals, his drive to steal stems from a deeply rooted addiction to drugs; meth and cocaine, specifically.

“That addiction just hit me and it made my head feel like … I want more, more, more. And if I can’t get it, I’ve got to go out and steal something for it,” Rushing said.

Rushing’s crime spree started at an early age. He said he started smoking cigarettes at 7 years old, and four years later, he was addicted to cocaine.

Said Rushing: “Daddy stayed out in the ocean shrimping. He’d smoke crack. I watched him. One day, he said, ‘Take a hit,’ and it started me on it.”

Rushing’s education is limited, to put it lightly. He never learned to read and doesn’t have a driver’s license.

Rushing said he usually rides his bicycle or walks through neighborhoods, checking car doors until he gets lucky.

“I’d look in it and see if I can find some open money like change, maybe even a hundred dollar bill. I’d be happy with that,” Rushing said.

However, if the opportunity’s there, he won’t hesitate to take the whole car if the keys are in it, of course. Otherwise, it’s too messy.

“I wouldn’t bother getting in and tearing up the ignition and then get shot at. I want to hurry up and get out of these people’s yards,” Rushing said.

The gas station is where he gets lucky – preying on people running inside who forget to turn off their car engine.

Said Rushing: “This is what happened. I went down the road and I stole this vehicle. Somebody left it running at the gas pump. I jumped in it and hauled butt in it. They caught me (a couple of days later). It was a man’s truck. It was something I did wrong, but the drugs led me to it.”

Rushing actually gets caught a lot – he’s been to prison three times and depending on his latest sentence, may head there for a fourth. He tells us that if he doesn’t find drug help, he’ll probably go right back to rummaging through cars as soon as he gets out.

“I always tell the judge I’ve got a drug problem. I need drug help,” Rushing said. “I always get railroaded into the system. I’ve got 11 years in the system.”