By Kolby LaMarche

A man with a long record of mental illness and repeated low-level criminal cases was arrested early Friday after breaking into an occupied home on Hungerford Terrace and barricading himself in a bathroom, Burlington police allege.

Misbah Abdul-Kareem, 41, who has been identified as homeless, entered the residence through a window on Thursday night.

The resident, who did not know him, immediately hid in a closet and called for help. Officers responded, entered the home and took Abdul-Kareem into custody without incident. During a search they recovered a small quantity of what they believed to be cocaine.

He faces charges of unlawful trespass, possession of cocaine and violation of conditions of release. Police said he is under an Order of Hospitalization, placing him in the care and custody of the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Mental Health.

Arraignment was scheduled for this morning in Chittenden County Superior Court.

For Abdul-Kareem, this incident continues a years-long cycle documented across multiple counties. In February 2026, Abdul-Kareem, then 40, pleaded not guilty by video in Washington County Criminal Court in Barre to one felony count of grand larceny, four misdemeanor counts of petit larceny, one count of unlawful trespass onto land and seven counts of unlawful trespass into a motor vehicle.

Authorities accused him of breaking into multiple vehicles and stealing items. If convicted he faced a maximum of 16 years; he was released on a $200 unsecured appearance bond.

Court records and local reporting also show more than 80 charges accumulated since roughly 2019, reports say, most involving trespass, petty theft, disorderly conduct and violations of release conditions.

Many stemmed from entries into homes, cars or businesses in the Brattleboro area. In January 2025 a Windham Superior Court judge noted that 73 pending charges against him constituted the highest number for any single defendant in the state system at the time—10 felonies and 63 misdemeanors. He has repeatedly been found not competent to stand trial.

Family members and court descriptions have portrayed him as nonviolent and at times kind-hearted, yet unable to follow court orders because of schizophrenia and delusional thinking.

His mother has said he experienced a psychotic break around age 19 while in college, according to court documents.

In 2010, while apparently suffering from paranoia, he jumped from a moving car on Interstate 89 and sustained a traumatic brain injury. He attended Burlington High School, where he was a standout athlete on state-championship basketball and football teams, and later expressed interest in becoming an art-education teacher. Originally from the Burlington area, he has lived in recent years in Brattleboro and Wilmington.

In March 2024, after discharge from the Vermont state psychiatric hospital, he remained in Department of Mental Health custody at a secure residential treatment facility. Pending criminal cases were postponed until January 2025 at the request of prosecutors, with defense counsel agreeing.

Earlier evaluations had sometimes concluded he did not require inpatient hospitalization, after which releases were followed by new incidents.

Judges and lawyers have repeatedly cited delays in competency evaluations, sometimes lasting months, as a systemic problem that left defendants deteriorating in jail or cycling back into the community with little supervision.

In August 2022, shortly after release from 53 days in custody on burglary charges, Abdul-Kareem was accused of leaving a home that was not his while carrying a beer.

At a hearing he mumbled and made statements about an abnormality in his brain and a tumor.

His public defender argued that prolonged detention without a completed competency evaluation had worsened his condition. The judge set $1,000 bail at that time, noting both public-safety concerns and Abdul-Kareem’s inability to follow prior conditions.

Federal court records, too, show that in 2018 Abdul-Kareem filed a habeas corpus petition against the Vermont Department of Mental Health.

The case was dismissed without prejudice in 2019; an appeal was later dismissed for failure to file a brief.

In a separate 2019 civil action he sued the Town of Brattleboro, claiming he had left a wallet containing $51,000 in a town park and seeking compensation if surveillance footage did not recover it. The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed dismissal in 2020, finding no legal theory that made the town liable.