Crime & Safety

Local Lutheran Homes Have an Odd Morning

At one home, a woman displays a strange interest in others' office supplies, and at another, a man causes an even stranger commotion in the wee hours outside.

Two incidents the same morning at two of Wauwatosa's Lutheran retirement and assisted living centers left security guards and police scratching their heads to understand odd and unsettling human behavior.

At 6:56 a.m., a 45-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested on suspicion of theft from Luther Manor, 4545 N. 92nd St., for pilfering freely from office desks.

A security guard told police that the woman had come to the front desk at about 6:45 and asked to use the restroom. He let her do so, but when about six minutes had passed without her returning, he went to look for her.

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He found the woman wandering the halls and now carrying a well-stuffed bag with a fair-sized Luther Manor clock sticking out of it. Besides the clock, she had bagged up a Wite-Out tape dispenser, a pair of scissors, a letter opener, pink and yellow highlighter pens, two black Sharpie pens, two notepads and a staple remover.

The guard took back the property and told her to leave, then decided to call police, who stopped a county bus and found the woman on board. She claimed that she had stopped in at Luther Manor to pick up a job application — although she never made such a request there — went to the bathroom and then noticed all this stuff just sitting out in the open and, she said, assumed it was just free for the taking.

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Vagrant flees at sight of officer ... with reason

Earlier the same morning, at 2:36 a.m., callers from the Lutheran Home, 7500 W. North Ave., reported a subject hanging around outside who appeared to be loitering, prowling or possibly hurt and in need of aid, as he was holding his head in his hands.

An officer spotted a 57-year-old Milwaukee man in the 2300 block of Lefeber Avenue and stopped to check on him, and noted that he was still holding his head in both hands.

When the officer approached, he put his hands down and said softly, “Oh, my God, oh, my God,” several times. He had a large scrape on his forehead.

When the officer asked if he’d been near the Lutheran Home, he shouted, “No, I wasn’t!” and bolted away. The officer chased until the man slipped and fell in the snow.

When he got up, he assumed a “pre-attack posture,” the officer said, so he gave the man a push and he toppled over again.

Once he was identified, it turned out he was wanted on a felony warrant through the Department of Corrections and had a very lengthy criminal record for retail thefts, thefts of property, felony fleeing arrest, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, battery, violating domestic abuse orders, criminal damage to property, trespassing and more.

The man was unable or unwilling to explain his injury or what he was doing outside the Lutheran Home. He was sent to Froedtert Hospital for treatment and observation before being taken to jail.


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