Basement Window Burglar Strikes Again

In a case that is far too close and too similar to be a coincidence, a burglar struck a second home Sunday in a neighborhood in northernmost Wauwatosa where another house was .

In each of these daytime burglaries, just blocks apart, the perpetrator broke in through a small basement window sunken in a window well and clambered down on a shelf or stand below.

A possible suspect was spotted this time, and if indeed he is the culprit, he is as small and slight as you would expect – and he appears to be very young.

According to police reports on Sunday's burglary:

A resident of the 11000 block of West Ruby Avenue reported at 1:20 p.m. that his home had been broken into within the past two hours. He had locked the house and left at 11:30 a.m. with two of his children, gone to Thiensville, and just returned.

He came in through the front door, and when he walked down the main hallway he saw jewelry boxes open on the bed in the master bedroom. He collected his children, got out and called police. In the process, he noted that the back door was ajar.

cleared the premises and soon found the point of entry. The burglar had removed the cover of a back window well, broken in the glass and climbed into a basement bedroom by lowering himself onto a CD stand.

The room was littered with broken glass, CDs and dried leaves from the window well. Rooms throughout the home had been rummaged through, and the family was missing jewelry and watches, a video game system and accessories, a Blue Ray player and an iPod Touch.

The father, mother, one of their sons and a neighbor each said independently that they had seen a suspicious boy on the street just before the family left at 11:30, and each gave a similar description.

They described the boy as black with a medium complexion, appeared to be about 12 to 14 years old, was 5-feet 8-inches tall, and thin, about 120 to 130 pounds, with short, light brown, curly hair. He was wearing shorts and a dark blue T-shirt at the time.

The details are almost identical to the nearby burglary the previous Monday, Aug. 27. In that case, the burglar also entered through a basement window well, removing insulation from the window, breaking it in, then climbing down onto a shelf below.

That home is in the 10800 block of West Courtland Avenue, two blocks north and two blocks east of Sunday's break-in.