Wakeen Best, the man accused of throwing a Chihuahua to its death from a seven-story garage over the weekend, is the kind of chronic small-time offender all too familiar to San Franciscans. He has racked up dozens of arrests and numerous convictions over the past 15 years, but has hardly ever served more than a few weeks in jail.

One of his specialties is car-break-ins, police records show. It’s a crime that seems to be as common in San Francisco as jaywalking, and Best’s latest alleged smash-and-grab would never have rated a mention if it didn’t involve a dog named Dunky being hurled from the Sutter-Stockton Garage near Union Square.

The garage is one of Best’s haunts — his most recent jail stint was for felony auto burglary that he committed there in 2016. He served 64 days and got out Jan. 12, less than a month before the car break-in that resulted in the death of 4-year-old Dunky.

The black-and-tan Chihuahua’s broken body was found on the street at 2 p.m. Saturday, shortly before its owner returned to the garage. Evidence from the car’s dashboard camera revealed a suspect well known to police — a repeat offender who occasionally identifies as female and goes by the street name “LaLa.”

“Our beat officers were very familiar with him,” said Capt. Paul Yep of the department’s Central Station. “They were really on a mission to find him.”

Yep added, “It was a really a cruel incident — even the veteran officers that responded were surprised at what they found.”

When they did discover Best the next day at Polk and Bush streets, a few blocks from the crime, Yep said, “he seemed to be going about his business as usual.”

Why not? For Best, it was just another arrest for burglary — something he has been through many times. And, as police records show, the law has been powerless to alter Best’s behavior.

The first record of Best coming into contact with San Francisco police was in February 2003, when he was arrested in the Mission District on suspicion of felony auto burglary, grand theft and possession of burglary tools.

While Best was awaiting trial, he was arrested two more times — once on a petty theft warrant out of Sacramento, and once for failing to appear on the auto burglary case in San Francisco.

In the end, Best pleaded guilty to petty theft and served 20 days in jail.

It was a pattern of property-crime arrests and short jail stays that has continued ever since — sprinkled with arrests for other low-level offenses, including prostitution-related loitering and possession of methamphetamine.

However, not all of his 40-plus arrests were for minor crimes. In May 2005, Best was booked on suspicion of first-degree strong-arm robbery, but ended up pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery and serving 15 days. A year and a half later, an armed-robbery arrest at Sixth and Market streets led to another misdemeanor plea and a 28-day jail sentence.

Over the years, Best repeatedly failed to show up for court appearances and was repeatedly arrested for outstanding warrants. Those, too, led to stays of a few days in jail.

He did get a five-month sentence in February 2010 after cutting a deal for arrests that included armed robbery and methamphetamine possession. But that sentence apparently was cut short, because records show that Best was arrested just three months later for an auto break-in in Polk Gulch.

His longest jail stretch appears to have been the year he got in December 2011 for transporting and selling meth. At least a half-dozen arrests for minor violations followed his release before Best was picked up in October 2016 for alleged felony auto burglary and possession of burglary tools, stemming from a break-in at the Sutter-Stockton Garage.

After a year of going through the court system — and after also being charged in November 2017 with second-degree robbery related to fight over a soda inside a Stockton Street business — Best got his 64-day jail term that ended in January. As part of his sentence, he was slapped with a court order that he stay away from the Sutter-Stockton Garage until 2021.

“It has been a revolving door — in and out of the criminal justice system,” said Martin Halloran, president of the Police Officers Association. “We have a chronic problem of an individual on the street with substance abuse problems and mental health issues preying on innocent victims.”

Karen Flood, head of the Union Square Business Improvement District, called what happened to Dunky “very disturbing.” She said the group has several surveillance cameras around the garage and has turned over footage to police.

On Tuesday, Best was charged with a string of felony and misdemeanor counts, including auto burglary, cruelty to animals, vandalism, possession of a weapon, burglary tools and drug paraphernalia, and, yes, a violation of the garage stay-away order. He is being held without bail and is to appear in court Wednesday.

The public defender’s office, which has represented Best in the past, said he has not yet been assigned an attorney.

“It’s sad, but this may be the only case where he may get serious time,” Halloran said. “Because if there is one thing the public won’t tolerate, it’s cruelty to children, the elderly and defenseless animals.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross