Is it really so hard to get by on a professor’s salary that this guy had to resort to theft?

Warner Todd Huston of Breitbart reported.

D.C. Diversity Professor Charged With Burglary, Property Destruction, Put on Leave

A professor for American University in Washington D.C. has been placed on leave after being arrested for allegedly breaking into several shops and setting several fires.

David W. Pitts, who chairs the school’s Department of Public Administration and Policy, was arrested last week and charged with burglary and destruction of private property for breaking into the Foxhall Square shopping mall, a strip of stores located below his Washington apartment, according to the Washington Post.

Pitts, 37, has been with the university since 2005, has a doctorate degree, and is on the boards of several professional journals and magazines.

Police say that Pitts set a chair on fire near the guard shack of his apartment complex parking garage. He then lit a newspaper on fire in front of a nearby Starbucks. Then he set a fire in a wooded area off Embassy Drive.

Security officers called police when the professor forced his way into a section of the mall housing the pharmacy, a bank, and doctor’s offices. Pitts was chased through the mall and was eventually caught in the parking garage.

Police found among Pitts’ belongings a white bag containing newspapers and some sort of flammable substance. They also found matches and two lighters in his pockets. In his apartment, police found 5,431 prescription pills, including 2,310 Cialis pills, sedatives to treat insomnia, and oxycodone.