A burglar in America is in prison for the third time after committing a series of break-ins to satisfy his obsession with women's socks.

James Dowdy, 36, is being held in custody on one felony burglary count, despite pleas that he needs psychological help, after he broke into a house in Belleville, Illinois, and stole a handful of socks from the laundry room.

His mother, Linda, said that her son needed psychiatric treatment for a fixation that she says has tormented him for most of his life. She believes that the fetish started when he took some of her socks as keepsakes after he was forced to live for a year with his father as a child.

She added that she was worried for her son as “somebody's going to shoot him" if he keeps carrying out break-ins to feed his habit.

“He cries to me all the time, ‘Mum, I hate myself. I’d rather be dead than live like this,”’ the 59-year-old mother told the Associated Press news agency. “He doesn’t hurt anybody, and he never takes anything of value. He takes nothing but socks.”

Police have said that there is no evidence that Mr Dowdy has ever threatened anyone in his quest for socks. But yesterday, Captain Don Sax, one of the investigating officers, said that while Mr Dowdy is “obviously a guy with a problem,” authorities have run out of patience.

“I’m sorry, I don’t personally have any sympathy for him anymore,” Captain Sax said. “He’s been doing this long enough, he’s been out of jail plenty long enough, that he could have easily gone out and sought help for whatever problem he has.”

The most recent offence is the latest in a long line of sock thefts committed by Mr Dowdy. In 1994, he was sentenced to three years in prison for trying to break into a residential property, and getting caught with a bag of stolen socks.

During sentencing for that crime, he told the judge: “I know what I did was wrong, and the thing with the socks, I would like to get help with it so I can get over it, get it out of my life and get on with my life.”

In 1997, Dowdy was given a six-year sentence for breaking into another woman’s home and stealing socks. Then, in 2004, he was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted burglary, reportedly linked to an incident in which he walked into a female neighbour’s home for her socks.

Last year, witnesses in Mr Dowdy’s street reported seeing a suspicious person peeking through windows. Police said that socks were often left behind, although it is unclear whether the culprit dropped them clumsily or as a calling card.

Police responding to one of the reports saw Mr Dowdy - who fitted the description of the man reported by neighbours - trying to crawl into his house through a basement window, socks in one hand and a torch in the other. Charges of attempted burglary and disorderly conduct are pending.

Early on Monday, a man told police that he saw a stranger crawling out of his basement window after his 15-year-old daughter heard someone downstairs. Captain Sax said that police dogs led officers to the house where Mr Dowdy lives with his mother, and socks taken from the caller’s basement laundry room were found in his bedroom.

Captain Sax credited the victim, a legal owner of firearms, with staying level-headed and not confronting the burglar.

Police and Mr Dowdy’s mother, however, fear that luck may not hold up. “I told the police officer the other night they’re going to call me in the middle of the night to identify my son’s body because somebody’s going to shoot him,” Mrs Dowdy said.

“And in all honesty, I can’t blame that person because I would be trying to protect my home, too.”

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