A late night burglar was locked up for raiding two homes and leaving sleeping families in shock.
After the offences, 19-year-old Jake Shaw went to McDonald's cafés with friends and bought food with stolen bank cards, a court heard.
He already had 22 offences on his criminal record as Recorder Simon King sent him into a young offenders' institution for three years and six months.
And he warned Shaw: "Unless you take steps to turn your life around, things are going to get worse and worse.
"We see in the courts people getting into trouble time and time again. They find it very difficult to get out of that cycle. You will have to wait a while before you have your liberty to start that change.
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"You have got to take responsibility," he told Shaw, of Lotus Close, St Ann's.
Eunice Opare-Addo, prosecuting, said the first burglary took place at a house on Third Avenue, Gedling, after 2.47am on November 25. A couple slept through the raid which involved Shaw and three others.
At around 9am, Shaw used a bank card to pay a £21 bill at McDonald's.
Items stolen included computer equipment holding photographs and music collected over 20 years as well as a book which the resident was writing and illustrating.
"Every time she walks through the village she looks down alleyways and in bushes hoping to find the hard drive but it has still not been recovered," said Miss Opare-Addo.
She said the second burglary took place at around 12.40am on February 5. This time the home was on Marshall Road, Mapperley.
On this occasion, two cars were taken and were later seen at a retail park in Mansfield. Four men spent £91 at McDonald's with a stolen card.
Miss Opare-Addo said: "Since the incident, one occupant had sleepless nights and no longer feels safe in her home. It caused significant distress."
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Richard Posner, mitigating, said Shaw was with others and told the court: "This is four lads behaving very badly.
"In terms of groups or a gang, and the definition of a group or gang, this is not in the area of gangland offending."
He had a warehouse job lined up at the time. Mr Posner added: "He does want to put things right in his life and stop offending in this way."
Shaw admitted two counts of burglary, handling stolen goods and fraud.
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