Police Report: 2 Churches Among Targets of Crime

Two churches were struck by crime this week, one serious incident being an attempted burglary and the other a case of vandalism and petty theft in which an Episcopal flag was stolen from its staff.

At 7:10 p.m. Tuesday, an employee of , 734 Glenview Ave., reported that someone had tried to break into the church. Police found that someone had entered an inadvertently unlocked outer set of doors on the north side of the building and then tried to pry open the inner doors with a pry bar or crowbar, damaging the doors but failing to get inside the church. Damage was estimated at $150 to a metal strike plate on the doors.

Police were called Thursday to , 1717 Church St., on a complaint that the previous week someone had stolen the church flag, in the process bending that flagpole as well as another pole bearing the American flag. The flags were hung on either side of the main entrance.

In other recent reports:

Thursday

At 9:35 p.m., a 66-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for theft after he tried to leave , 6950 W. State St., with $257.73 worth of meat. The man was found to have an 8¾-inch steak knife in his pocket, and store employees told police that he had thrown down something while in the surveillance room, where they quickly found a broken crack pipe.

Wednesday

At 7:45 p.m., police were called to Noodles and Co., 7500 W. State St., to check on a complaint from the owner that a customer’s purse had been stolen. A 16-year-old Menomonee Falls girl had forgotten the purse on her table when she and a friend left and had called the restaurant to have it secured. It was gone by then, and the owner suspected two teenage boys who had been seated at the next table. Before police arrived, he said, one of the boys had returned to the restaurant and admitted that his friend had stolen the purse and said that the other boy was going to return it. However, the other boy did not return with the purse.

At 3:31 p.m., a 41-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested after he tried to steal 24 baseball caps from Lids at Mayfair Mall. The man had put the hats in a bag and walked out, setting off alarms, and refused to return to the store when employees stopped him. He was also so uncooperative with police he could not be uncuffed to be fingerprinted and photographed. He was found to have two warrants for failure to appear in earlier theft arrests.

Tuesday

A Hales Corners woman reported that sometime between 8:15 a.m. and 6 p.m. someone had smashed a window in her car while it was parked in the structure at Medical College of Wisconsin Spine Clinic, 1155 N. Mayfair Rd., where she works, and had stolen a $200 GPS unit. The thief had apparently tried to punch out a lock before resorting to breaking the window, damaging a door and bringing the total damage to the car to $750.

A Wauwatosa woman reported that someone had stolen the rear license plate off a school bus while it was parked overnight at the business, 6117 W. Vliet St.

At 3:23 p.m., police arrested a 51-year-old Milwaukee man for having open intoxicants after a 9-year-old girl who lives in the 7300 block of West Garfield Avenue saw him walking toward her and recognized him as the same man she had found asleep in her mother’s bedroom a month before after he had wandered into the home drunk. She became frightened and told her mother he was back, and her mother called police. Officers found the man sitting on a bench in front of Walter’s, 6930 W. North Ave., with a nearly empty bottle of tequila.

An Oconomowoc man reported that sometime between 9 a.m. and noon someone had smashed a window in his SUV while it was parked in the structure at 10700 Research Dr. and had rifled a travel bag he had left in the car. Nothing was stolen, he said.

At 3:16 a.m., a 25-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested for criminal damage to property after he broke a mailbox post and overturned a cigarette disposal container outside , 11302 W. Blue Mound Rd., when the owner refused to open up for him after hours. The man was still there when police arrived and appeared to be drunk. The owner said the man kept pounding on his door and yelling to be let in although it was well after closing, and continued to do so after he had been told to go away.

Sunday

The owner of , 2111 N. Mayfair Rd., reported that someone had stolen the wheels off a 2011 Ford Mustang at the lot and left the car on blocks. Taken were four Pirelli tires on California Special rims, and all the lug nuts, altogether worth almost $4,000.