Police a Bit Leery of Girl's Armed Robbery Claim

A 16-year-old Milwaukee girl reported that between 5 and 6 p.m. Thursday she was beaten, robbed and threatened with a knife by five girls and young women as she was walking to the bus stop at North Mayfair Road and West Burleigh Street.

But police expressed some skepticism in their reports of the incident. While not discounting her story all together, they hinted that she might, maybe, have just been covering up an unexcused tardiness in getting home when she was supposed to.

According to their reports:

The girl arrived at the police station at 12:17 a.m. Friday with her mother to report the assault. She told officers she had gone to Mayfair Mall alone, by bus, and had made eye contact with a girl with whom she has had altercations at school.

After shopping, she was walking back toward the Burleigh stop, she said, when a black car passed her and then made a U-turn. The car pulled up alongside from behind her, she said, and the five subjects got out and accosted her, one of them holding a knife.

She said they surrounded her and then began to punch and kick her. She fell to the pavement, she said, and the group of attackers pulled off her jacket and stole her handbag, which contained her cell phone, bus pass and cash.

She said she then walked to her home on 40th Street without reporting the crime, arriving about 11 p.m.

The girl's mother said she had been somewhat frantic when she couldn't reach her daughter all evening, and when she heard her story, insisted they report it to police.

Officers first noted that the girl couldn't describe any of her attackers in any detail except to say that the one with the knife had a blue jacket and looked about 20, while the others looked about 15 or 16 years old. She also couldn't describe the knife.

Then there was the matter of her appearance. She didn't have a scratch or mark on her, and in fact had a fresh, unchipped manicure, which seemed inconsistent with being beaten down to the pavement.

The girl began to get irritated with their questions about then, officers noted.

They also questioned how it was that a walk from 108th Street to 40th Street, while a long haul, took her five to six hours, and that she seemed no worse for wear for having done it without a jacket on a cold, wet night.

At that point, the girl became very irritated, officers reported, and refused to answer any more questions.

Nevertheless, the case was forwarded to the Detectives Bureau for further investigation.