Police Report: Update on Crime in Wauwatosa

Among the incidents reported to police in the past several days, one stands out for the persistence displayed by a thief to just keep stealing.

At 6:12 p.m. Saturday, a 27-year-old Milwaukee woman and a 23-year-old Hartland woman were arrested at , 6950 W. State St., when they tried to leave the store without paying for more than $500 worth of merchandise. Each woman had nearly $250 worth of baby formula as well as makeup and snack foods.

The Milwaukee woman was also arrested for possession of marijuana, bail jumping and as a fugitive on six separate retail theft warrants from six different jurisdictions. The woman was also found to be out of jail at the time on a $1,000 signature bond from Milwaukee County, also for retail theft.

If you're keeping count, that makes eight counts of retail theft in which she has been caught, and seven times – so far – she has failed to appear in court.

Tuesday

At 6:32 a.m., a 29-year-old New Berlin man was arrested for disorderly conduct after he tipped over a stuffed animal vending machine at the restaurant at 11155 W. North Ave. The man told police his girlfriend had been playing the claw machine and a stuffed animal had gotten hung up, so he had shaken the machine to get it to drop, accidentally tipping the game. But a server at the restaurant told officers she had seen the man put his shoulder to the machine. Police examined the large, heavy machine and determined that no amount of mere shaking would have tipped it over, so the man was taken into custody and issued a citation with a fine of $303.

At 12:54 a.m., a 27-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for possession of marijuana after police stopped the car he was riding in for having no license plates. The patrol officer smelled marijuana and searched the three passengers, arresting one when he admitted to having a small bag of marijuana in his pocket and turned it over.

Sunday

At 5:18 p.m., an 18-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for retail theft after he was seen concealing items of clothing inside his own clothes and trying to leave at Mayfair Mall without paying for them. When police arrived, the man was fighting with a store employee and several mall security officers. When searched, he was found to have two shirts, a sweatshirt and two pairs of boxer shorts, all worth $373, hidden in his pant leg.

At 3:15 p.m., a resident of the 3200 block of Menomonee River Parkway reported that some time since 12:30 p.m. someone had stolen a stainless steel grill and two lawn mowers, together worth about $2,090, from his back yard and from a shed behind his garage while he and his wife had gone out to lunch. A neighbor told police that at about 2:30 p.m. she had heard a noise from the victim’s residence and had seen a green pickup truck pulling out of the driveway loaded with various items. She said she did not know the residents were away from home at the time and so did not think anything of it.

An employee of Home Depot, 4100 N. 124th St., reported that at 7:58 a.m. a man had walked out of the store without paying for merchandise he was carrying, which video footage showed was three sets of window blinds worth $149.91. The employee, an asset protection specialist, recognized him as the same man who had stolen $571.76 worth of goods on May 16.

An Iron River woman reported that on Saturday someone had entered her car and stolen $1,120 worth of property while it was parked in the Mayfair Mall lot. She said she always locks her car and thought she had locked it on this occasion as well, but police could find no sign of forced entry and determined that she must have left it unlocked this time.

At 4:13 a.m., police responded to a burglar alarm and found the glass front door smashed in at , 3122 N. Mayfair Rd. The officer noted that he had arrived within a minute of being dispatched and saw no one leaving the area, yet there was evidence that someone had entered and left the store, and the owner said he was sure that at least eight bottles of liquor worth $356.92 were missing. The owner did not know how to retrieve video surveillance footage but said he would have a technician burn a DVD for police as soon as possible.

At 12:45 a.m., a 37-year-old man was who had been arrested May 23 for threatening to kill his wife was arrested again at the same residence in the 2400 block of North 66th St. for violating a restraining order to stay away from the home and for violating the terms of his release by being drunk. He was arrested for bail jumping and taken to the Milwaukee County Criminal Justice Facility.

Saturday

At 5:19 p.m., a 43-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested and another known suspect, a 39-year-old Milwaukee man, escaped after the two of them stole razors and diabetic test strips from Target, 3900 N. 124th St. The suspect who escaped makes a regular habit of stealing expensive razors, test strips, Rogaine and dental whitening strips, and in this case he saw that he was being watched and fled without his companion in crime, who also made it out of the store but was tracked down a short time later a few blocks away.

At 1:49 p.m., an employee of Home Depot reported that a man had tried to steal a 100-foot spool of wire but had dropped it and fled when security personnel approached and grabbed at him.

At 12:30 p.m., a resident of the 1200 block of Kavanaugh Place reported that some time the night before someone had stolen the propane tank for his gas grill from his back yard. He had just bought it the previous evening and had left it on his patio.

Friday

At 11:58 p.m., a 20-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested for possession of marijuana after he was stopped for speeding in the 9800 block of Blue Mound Rd. and was found to have 5 grams of marijuana in the trunk of his car.

A 35-year-old Wauwatosa woman was being investigated after a educational assistant called police to report suspected abuse of the woman’s 7-year-old son. The boy had told her that his mother had struck him and showed her bumps and scrapes on his forehead and swelling on his upper back. The Lincoln aide reported the incident to Milwaukee County Child Welfare, which revealed that the woman had been the subject of a number of similar complaints. Police tried to make contact with the agency Friday but it was a mandatory county furlough day.