Who is Mike from The Lock Artist: A Novel and what is their importance?

Mike is the main character and narrator of The Lock Artist. While incarcerated, Mike decides to write his story since he has not spoken since he was 8 years old. After robbing a safe in Pennsylvania for the Blue Crew, Mike goes to New York in 1999. After the tragedy in 1990, Mike goes to live with Uncle Lito in Milford, Michigan. Back in 1999, he steals diamonds from a house in Connecticut with a group of amateurs, but they alert him that there is a problem the next day. Mike attends school at the Higgins Institute for those with communicative problems, and the summer before he is sent to public school, he learns to pick locks. Because the diamonds were fake, Mike returns to Connecticut with the amateurs to find the real safe, but the amateurs are killed, and the security officers handcuff Mike. At Milford High School, Mike learns that he is artistically gifted, but he makes a mistake by opening Brian Hauser's gym lock. Mike escapes from the handcuffs in Connecticut and returns to his apartment in New York to find the white pager beeping. When Brian and his buddies convince Mike to break into the Marshes' house to play a prank, only Mike is caught and arrested.