Dennis McGuire, an alleged serial metal thief who was the subject of a front-page profile in The Chronicle earlier this month, has been freed again — this time after he was given a suspended sentence for stealing more than $20,000 worth of copper wire last year from Muni and a U-Haul business in the city.

According to McGuire’s exasperated neighbors on 24th Street in Noe Valley, he got busy after his Friday sentencing in San Francisco Superior Court, using tools to blast through the sidewalk outside his dilapidated home in an effort to restore water service. A Chronicle reporter who visited the house Monday found jagged holes half-covered by plywood, sawhorses and yellow “caution” tape. McGuire would not comment.

By Monday afternoon, after a Chronicle inquiry, a crew from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission had visited the scene and was looking into the mess. Officials said the agency had shut down McGuire’s water because he didn’t pay his bills, and added that it was not possible to regain service with a sledgehammer.

But neighbors and others who visited the scene were confronted with a document McGuire had posted — a valid permit to “replace water service” issued May 14 by the city Department of Building Inspection (see it here). A spokesman for the department said Tuesday he would look into the document.

It was just the latest chapter for McGuire, 52, who has a long record of theft and drug use — and whose sentencing set off a debate between the San Francisco district attorney and public defender.

McGuire initially accepted a plea deal in connection with the copper cases and was sent to the city’s restorative drug court, where he had a chance to get his cases dismissed if he completed a supervised program. But he was pulled over May 3 with a trunk full of copper, according to San Francisco police, then missed a drug court hearing five days later, leading to his arrest May 24.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge James Collins handed McGuire a five-year suspended prison sentence and three years of probation, while ordering him to pay restitution of $13,208 to Muni and $6,989 to U-Haul. If he violates his probation, the prison term can be imposed.

Collins denied McGuire’s request to return to drug court. McGuire said he wanted to seek treatment at Walden House in San Francisco, and had opted out only because his court-appointed counselor sabotaged him.

“Unfortunately for Mr. McGuire, he has lost his opportunity to complete drug court and use that avenue to get his life back together,” said Assistant District Attorney Alex Bastian, an office spokesman. “We’re at the end of the road with Mr. McGuire. If he’s found in violation of his probation, I’m confident that he will find himself in jail for the foreseeable future.”

Public Defender Jeff Adachi said his office would ask Judge Collins to reconsider and send McGuire back to drug court.

He said McGuire was committed to rehabilitation and that the sentencing “exposes one of the failings of the criminal justice system … He’s sentenced basically to probation without any kind of treatment. This is exactly the kind of thing we’re trying to prevent — not getting people into treatment so you can get to the root of the problem.”

Bastian countered, “At some point you have to stop blaming everyone else — the system, the judge, the prosecutor, the counselor. It’s time to be accountable for your actions. ”

McGuire also faces charges including grand theft in San Mateo County, where prosecutors allege that he cut copper cables from BART tracks late last year. He is free on $125,000 bail in that case.

Some neighbors expressed frustration that McGuire — who so far has spent only a few weeks behind bars in connection with his alleged copper theft binge — had been freed again. None of the neighbors, though, would speak on the record, fearing retribution from McGuire.

McGuire lives on a stylish block of 24th Street, in a house that is the subject of a campaign by the neighbors to get the city to file a nuisance lawsuit. McGuire says he inherited the home from a friend who died in 2010, but he owes more than $135,000 in property taxes that date back to 2005, records show. In addition, he is locked in a probate court battle with a relative of the former owner, who asserts that McGuire forged the will.