Neighbors Interrupt Burglars But Scare Them Off Before Police Arrive

A Wauwatosa woman driving down her alley Tuesday morning saw two men carrying a television set out of a neighbor's home and to a waiting car and was certain something was amiss.

Something was. She was watching a burglary in progress.

According to a police report, the woman said she drove on to her home a few doors away, afraid to look back at the men, then went her next-door neighbor's home and told him what she'd seen.

He picked up the phone, dialed 911 and handed it to her, then went out to confront the men. He said he walked up to them and asked them what they were doing, and they said they were helping someone move, then got in the car and left.

Police arrived at 10:25 a.m. at the home in the 2400 block of North 64th Street and found that one or both of the burglars had climbed a second-story deck of the duplex and pushed in a window screen.

Officers recovered a silver cell phone on the kitchen floor which did not belong to the resident, who found he was missing two television sets, a Wii game system and a digital music player, altogether worth $5,475.

The two neighbors provided the license number of the car, and police were trying to trace both the car and the cell phone.