Police Report: Update on Crime in Wauwatosa

Thursday

Three cars were damaged by bowling balls at about 11:30 p.m. in the parking lot of Bowlero, 11737 W. Burleigh St., when four men who had been acting disorderly inside the business took two balls out of the bowling alley and one of them was seen throwing a ball into the back window of one of the cars. The witness was a Bowlero employee who said she saw one of the men carrying two balls belonging to the business when they left together. She had her eye on them, she said, because they had been acting rowdy all evening, getting loud and throwing balls in other people’s lanes. She followed them outside and saw one of them throw a ball at a car. She then went back inside to tell her manager to call police, and when she went back outside, they were gone. The owners of the three cars were not known to one another and did not know the suspects, so it appears to be a case of random vandalism. The four suspects were not known by name to employees of the bowling alley, but they were familiar to them as they were said to frequent the business.

At 8:05 a.m., an associate principal at Wauwatosa West High School called police to report a 15-year-old girl as habitually truant. Police called the girl’s mother, who said that her daughter might be home and might have other West students with her and also might be “doing some things they should not be doing,” such as drugs or alcohol. She gave police permission to enter her home and told them that if her daughter would not let them in they should get a key from the neighbor downstairs. Police were admitted and talked to the girl and an 18-year-old woman who was with her. Officers said neither appeared to be under the influence or drugs or alcohol, so they were taken to school. The 15-year-old was given a municipal citation for truancy; the 18-year-old could not be issued a truancy citation, being an adult.

At 12:25 a.m., a 25-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested for possession of an electric weapon after police were called to investigate a domestic dispute in the 1400 block of North 68th St. and found a stun gun in plain view on a living room table. The man and a 20-year-old woman involved in the argument gave the same address, but the police report did not say what their relationship was. The woman said that they had been arguing about sexually transmitted that she might have contracted. Because the woman said that she wanted to kill herself, she also was taken into custody on emergency detention and taken to the Milwaukee County Mental Health Center.

Wednesday

At 10:18 p.m., two residents of West Ruby Avenue separately reported hearing three gunshots from the area of Madison Park, 9800 W. Glendale Ave. One of the residents told officers he had experience with firing handguns and believed from the sounds he heard that they were handgun reports. Officers searched the area but encountered no one and found nothing.

At 5:02 p.m., a Waukesha woman reported that on April 4 someone had used her debit card number to make charges without her permission at Target, 3900 N. 124th St. The charges totaled $859.75. The report did not say why she waited nearly two months to report the fraud.

At 3:12 p.m., the manager of Walgreen’s, 2656 Wauwatosa Ave., reported a successful “till tap,” or robbery of a cash register drawer, after he noticed the drawer slightly open and then found it empty. Looking at surveillance video, he saw a man creep behind the photo counter and use some kind of tool to pry open the register. The man was also seen on exterior cameras walking away to the east on Center Street.

Tuesday

At 6:46 p.m., a pharmacist at Pick n’ Save, 6950 W. State St., reported that a man had tried to fill a fraudulent prescription for narcotics. The pharmacist noted that the man wanted to pay cash, which he said was usually an indication of fraud. The prescription was from a dentist’s office, and the suspect was identified through records as a dentist and partner in the same office. He had been disciplined by the state Dentistry Examining Board in 1991 for writing hydrocodone prescriptions for his wife and then taking the narcotic himself. After being told that the prescription was being checked with the dentist’s office, the known suspect, a Wauwatosa resident, left and did not return. The case was forwarded to the Wauwatosa Police Detective Bureau for further investigation.

At 6:52 p.m., two Milwaukee boys, one 16 and one 17, were arrested for retail theft at Metcalfe’s Sentry, 6700 W. State St., after they were seen on store cameras concealing various items and then trying to leave the store without paying. During the investigation of the store thefts, the two boys were also identified from earlier surveillance footage as the suspects in a bicycle theft at the store a few days earlier. So,tThe 16-year-old was then also charged with theft greater than $200 and the 17-year-old with receiving stolen property. When arrested for the store thefts that got them into much hotter water, the 16-year-old was trying to steal two pairs of inexpensive sunglasses, a pack of cheese curds and a stick of beef jerky, all worth $37.84; the 17-year-old had one stick of beef jerky worth $1.49.

At 1:28 p.m., a loss prevention officer at Target, 3900 N. 124th St., reported that he had noticed a lot of baby formula missing and then had seen a man and a woman on surveillance footage concealing the formula and leaving with it at 9:41 that morning. The employee also identified the man in the video as a suspect in another theft of baby formula in April at another Target location but with a different woman. In Tuesday’s case, the pair made off with 23 cans of formula together worth $527.37.

The owner of Greg’s Refinishing, 6228 W. State St., reported that at 2:12 p.m. Monday someone had cashed a stolen check from his business for $1,500 at the Guaranty Bank branch at 8340 W. Appleton Ave. He went to his bank and was given a copy of the check, which he verified was not written by him and was not in his name. He did not know how or when the check had been stolen.

At 5:51 a.m., a 40-year-old Wauwatosa woman was arrested at her home in the 3300 block of North Knoll Terrace on a federal warrant for gambling. Various property and evidence including her 2007 BMW, computer equipment and documents were turned over the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. No other details were available.

At 1:45 a.m, a 36-year-old Brookfield woman was arrested for drunken driving after a patrol officer following her saw her commit several traffic violations and “miscues” and pulled her over. The woman said that she had had only a couple of drinks that evening at work in a restaurant and was driving erratically because she was very tired. But when asked to perform a field sobriety test, she told officers, “just do what you have to do” and then admitted she had gotten off work at 8 p.m. Monday and had been drinking steadily since. She admitted she was intoxicated and submitted to arrest without further questioning. After processing, she could not remember the phone numbers of any of the people she wanted to call to pick her up.

Monday

At 10:20 p.m., a Milwaukee man reported that some time since 8:45 p.m. someone had broken into this car by smashing the driver’s window while it was parked at Buffalo Wild Wings, 2635 N. Mayfair Rd., and stolen his GPS unit and gym bag, together worth around $500.

At 11:30 a.m., a Wauwatosa man reported that someone had stolen his wallet while he was at Wisconsin Athletic Club and then used his credit and debit cards to buy gas at a Citgo station. One charge was against his debit card for $89.55 and two charges were pending against his credit card in unknown amounts. The man said that he was sure he had locked his clothing locker at the club and found it locked when he returned, but the wallet was missing.

At 7:28 p.m., a resident of the 2400 block of North 66th St. was arrested after a brief standoff with police for disorderly conduct and was also committed to emergency detention for his own safety. He had threatened the lives of his wife and children and any police officer who tried to arrest him. He also threatened suicide by slitting his wrists. The man has a history of depression and alcoholism, his wife said. When arrested, he was found to have minor cuts on his wrists.

At 7:15 p.m., a 29-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested for battery at his apartment in the 2300 block of North 83rd Street after he and his boyfriend got into an argument that escalated into a fight. The victim, who gave the same address, had a very swollen and bruised left eye and scratches on his neck and arms. The two had been cooking for a party and had a disagreement about how many people were coming over.

At 5:31 p.m., an employee of Victoria’s Secret at Mayfair Mall reported that a woman had stolen an unknown amount of perfume and lotion. The employee had seen the woman putting the items in a bag and reported it to her manager. The manager stopped the woman and asked her if she was planning to pay for the items, which she said she could clearly see in the bag. The thief pushed the manager and fled from the store. Employees tried to follow her but lost track of her in the Best Buy parking lot across Mayfair Road.

At 5:20 p.m., a 15-year-old boy currently residing at the Carmelite School for Boys, 1214 Kavanaugh Pl., was arrested for theft after he stole a purse belonging to an employee of the home. The woman immediately suspected the boy, who was the only one around, and reported the theft to her supervisor. He quickly reviewed video surveillance footage and clearly saw the boy taking the purse and running. When confronted, though, the boy denied it. He was searched and $301 was found hidden in his waistband. The woman’s purse and wallet were found in a stairwell.

At 4:39 p.m., an employee of the Apple Store in Mayfair Mall reported that a woman had stolen an iPhone earlier that afternoon. She had been at the Genius Bar in the rear of the store getting help with her phone while another customer next to her was also getting help with his. When the other customer and the employee assisting him stepped away from the counter for a moment, she grabbed his phone and her own and left the store. The store gave the victim a new phone at no charge. The stolen phone was a 3G model worth $199.

At 4:25 p.m., a 16-year-old Milwaukee boy was arrested for burglary after he and another boy were seen entering the garage at a home in the 6400 block of West Wisconsin Avenue and coming out with a bicycle. The woman of the house and her daughter both saw the boys and the woman yelled at them to leave the bike. They did, and then fled. The woman’s husband heard her yell at the boys and came around the front of the house in time to see the two running. He caught one of the boys, saying “he was slower than the other one.”

Sunday

At 10:06 p.m., a 16-year-old Wauwatosa boy was arrested at his home in the 6900 block of Harvey Avenue for possession of marijuana after his father called police and told them he had found drugs in his son’s knapsack and wanted him searched further because the boy had been in a lot of trouble with the law lately. Police did find marijuana and numerous items of drug paraphernalia. The father said that the boy had been charged twice for burglary, had been revoked from a first-offenders program for non-compliance and was on probation. That checked out with an intake worker at Milwaukee County Juvenile Detention Center, but police were told that after the first offender privileges were revoked, the burglary charges had been referred back to the district attorney’s office and therefore the boy was not officially on probation and could not be held. The boy was released back to his father.