Teen Raked Woman's Leaves, Then Burglarized Her Home, Police Say
Woman paid boys to do a job and trusted them to finish, but left them alone with her home unlocked, court document says. They repaid her trust by burglarizing her, it concludes.
A criminal complaint cast new light on a burglary reported earlier in which two Milwaukee teenagers were arrested on suspicion of entering a north side home and stealing a television set.
One of the youths has been charged, and police investigators now say the Wauwatosa homeowner had hired him and his friend to rake her leaves before they slipped inside and made off with her TV.
Donte Cunningham, 17, was charged in Thursday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with one count of burglary. If convicted, he faces up to 7½ years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint:
On Oct. 29, a woman living in the 4100 block of North 96th Street hired Cunningham and a friend to rake leaves in her yard – something not noted in previous police reports. While they were working, the complaint said, the woman told the two she had to leave, so she paid them and left with the back door to her home unlocked.
Cunningham and his friend finished raking the leaves, left the scene and returned 10 minutes later, knocked on the door and found it unlocked. The two then entered the home and wrapped a flatscreen television in a blanket and took it out of the home, police say.
However, they were spotted by a neighbor as they left. As a police officer was responding to the call, he saw the two running in the 4200 block of North 95th Street with the covered TV, then get into a vehicle and drive off.
The officer pulled the vehicle over and found the two suspects, along with two teenage girls who were in the front seats.
The two girls were released after it was determined that they were not aware of what Cunningham and the other boy intended to do when they drove them by the house.
Cunningham admitted to the burglary, saying they returned to the home with the intent to steal, according to police. He will make his initial appearance in court Nov. 9.
There was no indication in the criminal complaint against Cunningham as to why his companion was not being charged along with him, but that does not preclude him being charged separately.
