Exquisite Planning Earns Credit Union Burglar a Trophy

To fully appreciate the intricate planning that went into a break-in at a Wauwatosa credit union last week, you have go beyond what is in the police report and add a little deduction – and even a little imagination.

The burglar must have cased his target very carefully. He clearly hoped for a big score from getting inside Landmark Credit Union, 3600 N. 124th St. He took some chances, but he must have taken pains to observe the angles of surveillance cameras in the area of the drive-through teller window to avoid detection.

He couldn't plan his crime from any distance. His preparations demanded that he actually come in contact with the building, possibly more than once, before he made his attempt.

It seems likely that he has a better than average knowledge of building construction and materials. To succeed, he had to know that he could fairly easily remove an exterior glass panel from the building in the dark with no more than small hand tools. He had to know or have made an educated guess at what he would find behind that panel – not concrete block but only easy-to-break drywall.

He certainly measured the panel precisely; part of his plan involved replacing the dark tinted glass with a precut piece of dark Plexiglas that would match the original so closely no one would soon discern the illicit entrance.

Perhaps he even planned to make more than one burglary before his deed was discovered. Why else take the time, effort and risk to make the fake panel, unless to make it even easier to remove on subsequent visits?

It's possible – no one but the burglar can say for sure – that he might have actually removed and replaced the panel before his break-in, to speed up the final operation. The only evidence he left outside was a utility knife blade and some tiny bits of broken glass, such as might have come from prying at the edges of the panel or chipping it on the pavement.

Some time between 7:15 p.m. Friday and 8:20 a.m. Saturday, he executed his plan. He arrived at the credit union and either removed the original panel by cutting the caulking around it or took off his own fake one.

Then it was an easy matter to get through the drywall, but the criminal's care and resolve may have broken down. Maybe he panicked or just got in a rush. Maybe it was frustration. Rather than prudently cutting a neat hole in the drywall, he simply busted through it, leaving the broken chunks and dust lying in plain view on the floor.

Whatever his knowledge of the building's construction, it failed him now. There was a metal stud in the way, leaving only about a 1-foot-wide hole. To make matters worse for him, there was a large box of printer paper partially blocking his way.

Finally, desperation seized him. Police at first thought that after all his work he had never entered the building at all. But a surveillance video recording of the inside of the drive-through room that night shows that he certainly tried and partly succeeded.

It shows an unrecognizable man wriggling partway into the room and opening every drawer and cabinet he could reach. It was an exercise in futility. The credit union reported that nothing was taken from the room.

The man, daunted in his attempt to make a haul, nevertheless carefully replaced his fake panel outside before he left, even though the broken drywall inside was obvious to the first person to walk in in the morning.

No mention was made in the report of the burglar appearing in any outdoor video footage, either that night or on any previous night. The cautious burglar had foiled the credit union's security. Alarms in the drive-through room had been armed but were not set off during the burglary. Police noted in their report that the presence of the fake panel he made matched the real ones so well that the difference was not obvious even in broad daylight.

An uncommon criminal. Maybe he was an unemployed contractor or construction worker, down on his luck and looking to make ends meet. He knew more about how to get into a secure building than what to look for when he did. Run-of-the-mill burglars tend to do the opposite: They pick unsecure buildings and know what they're after.

For all his care and skill in planning and carrying out his crime, the burglar did come away with an appropriate prize: He carried off one $300 dark-tinted glass panel.