Apartment Resident Loses a Load of Property in Burglary

A Wauwatosa woman learned the hard way that not all locks are secure, and locks that aren't locked surely aren't, after a burglary cost her all her home electronics.

At 5:32 p.m. Friday, the woman, a resident of the 9100 block of West North Avenue, reported that some time since 7:30 a.m. someone had broken in to her third-floor apartment.

She had returned home to find her door closed and locked, as she'd left it, but when she went in she immediately saw that her electronic equipment was missing.

From her living room, a desktop computer and games, her television set, her DVD player, three video game consoles with controllers and games, from 150 to 200 DVD movies, and a laptop computer were all gone.

From her bedroom, another DVD player was missing and her jewelry had been rummaged through, although none appeared to have been taken. Another TV set was missing from her daughter’s bedroom.

Police found no sign of forced entry but noted that the apartment’s door knob lock – the renter did not use a deadbolt – was old and outdated and that the door could easily be opened by slipping any thin object between the door and frame.

The woman told officers, too, that residents typically kept the back door to the building propped open for convenience, which would have allowed anyone access to her door.

A neighbor told officers she had seen a man standing beside what she thought was a work van parked in back of the apartment building at about 2 p.m., but she thought he was a tradesman and did not report it. She described it as a large white van, about the length of a 15-passenger model.