Crime & Safety
Milwaukee Man Allegedly Unable to Make a Clean Cut in Landscaping Equipment Theft
Suspect, 49, allegedly tries to abandon a trailer full of $22,000 in landscaping equipment in the middle of West Meinecke Avenue after Wauwatosa police officers are called by a witness.
A 49-year-old Milwaukee man is facing charges after he was caught allegedly trying to steal a trailer full of landscaping equipment, then trying to leave the trailer in the middle of West Meinecke Avenue after someone saw the theft.
Mark A. Kennenbrew was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Tuesday with one count of conspiring to commit a theft of more than $10,000 in value. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
According to the criminal complaint:
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At 11 p.m. May 18, a man living in the 6200 block of West North Avenue saw an SUV pull into the alley and park, then saw two men get out. Moments later he heard a loud noise and looked outside again to see the men moving a trailer full of landscaping equipment that had been stored nearby towards the SUV.
The men moving the trailer saw the witness watching them, so they fled on foot. The driver of the SUV then took off with the trailer attached while the man called Wauwatosa police.
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An officer responding to the scene was on West Meinecke near North 60th Street when he saw the trailer in the middle of the road and the SUV beginning to pull away as the squad car approached. The SUV was pulled over and Kennebrew was the only person inside.
Kennebrew told the officer he had nothing to do with the trailer and was driving in the area when he saw it, so he went around it. However, after being taken to the Wauwatosa Police Department, he then gave three different accounts of what happened.
He first said he was just going around the trailer when driving by, then told another police officer two men had asked him to move the trailer, but he decided he didn’t want it on the SUV so he made it come off the SUV, then he said he was asked by the two men to help move the trailer, but they ran away for an unknown reason, so he took off after driving a couple of blocks because he thought he might be committing a theft.
The owner of the equipment told police it’s valued at $22,000 and said no one was supposed to be moving it.
Kennebrew will make his initial appearance in court June 20.
