FARMINGTON – A judge set bail at $50,000 cash or $200,000 in property for a former Florida man who police say has admitted to committing 15 burglaries in Maine – including ones in Weld and Byron – since December.

In one case, he is accused of stealing five guns from a Byron camp. The firearms were recovered.

Melvin L. “Grumpy” Vitko, 51, who has an address in Milford, N.H., on his driver’s license, made an initial appearance Thursday in 12th District Court in Farmington. Despite his N.H. address, court testimony indicated that he moved to Maine in December.

In Franklin County, Vitko faces two counts of receiving stolen property and a charge of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Vitko was arrested Wednesday by Franklin County sheriff’s Deputy Heidi Gould after a Weld resident reported seeing a truck matching the description of a stolen vehicle with Florida license plates that Vitko was said to be driving. Police believe it was used in several burglaries in Maine.

Police from multiple jurisdictions had been investigating the burglaries. Deputies put people in Weld on alert to watch for a red Dodge Dakota pickup believed to have been used in burglaries there.

Gould responded to a call Wednesday morning about a truck parked in a plowed driveway on Center Hill Road and found Vitko putting on a pair of snowshoes, Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Robinson told Judge Valerie Stanfill.

Vitko told Gould that he moved to Maine in December and had been getting money by committing burglaries, Robinson said.

Maine State Trooper Kyle Tilsley had initially charged Vitko with burglary and theft related to break-ins at three Byron camps that occurred Feb. 12.

Vitko was also arrested Wednesday on a 1998 Piscataquis County warrant for burglary, and faces other burglary charges in Oxford County, Robinson said. A warrant for his arrest is pending in Somerset County as well.

Robinson said Vitko had no ties to Maine, but has an association to New Hampshire and Florida.

Robinson also cited Vitko’s lengthy criminal history, beginning in 1978 with aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon, and went on to list other convictions including robbery, burglary, escape and trafficking in stolen property. The conviction for that last charge on July 6, 1999, carried a 10-year sentence in a Florida penitentiary. Vitko was released from there in mid-2007, Robinson said.

Stanfill set a conference date on the case for May 12, but told Vitko he would most likely be indicted before then.

When she asked Vitko if he would need a state-appointed attorney, he said “yes.”

The judge set Vitko’s bail at Robinson’s recommendation: $50,000 cash or $200,000 worth of real estate.