Police Reports: Mall-Crawler Starts a Real Conversation-Stopper

If this was supposed to be a pickup line, the guy would do better to drop it.

At 5:18 p.m. Monday, a 20-year-old Milwaukee man from the 3100 block of South 84th Street was arrested on an outstanding warrant after police were called on a report of suspicious and inappropriate behavior toward a customer at the Victoria’s Secret store in Mayfair Mall.

When an officer arrived, the man had left the store, but employees pointed him out, still hovering nearby. He was stopped and questioned.

The man admitted the complaint: He had approached a woman who was holding up some undergarments and said to her, “Great day to be shopping; I much prefer this store to Walmart!”

The officer asked him if he understood that a woman shopping alone for undergarments might be concerned about a strange man making that bit of conversation. He acknowledged that, yes, it could have seemed a little odd, the officer said.

The officer said that the complaining customer had left, but since he had made contact with the subject, he decided to run a background check. It revealed that the man was wanted on a Franklin warrant for disorderly conduct.

He was arrested and held until bond was posted.

In other recent incidents:

Thursday

A resident of the 800 block of North 117th Street reported that between 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. someone tried to break in to his home. He returned from work to find the back door window smashed. He called police and waited for the arrival of officers, who searched and cleared the home. They determined that no entry had been gained and nothing was taken.

Wednesday

A 43-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for possession of marijuana after a traffic stop for speeding in the 2600 block of North 116th Street. The patrol officer smelled marijuana smoke and asked if the man had anything illegal. He took a deep breath, the officer said, shrugged, and turned over a small quantity of pot and two pipes. He said it was for his personal use only, and as he had no criminal record, he was given a municipal citation with bail set at $200.

At 12:06, police were called to Viking Electrical Services, 2900 N. 112th St., on a report that about 15 minutes earlier, two men had stolen a 55-gallon plastic drum full of scrap wire from the back of a truck. An employee said he saw the two hoist the container out of the truck and put it in the trunk of a silver, late-‘90s model GM two-door, possibly a Riviera, and then drive off north on 112th with the trunk open and the scrap drum in plain view. He got only a partial license number and sketchy descriptions of the men, whom he said he likely couldn’t recognize.

At 10:38 a.m., an 18-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for theft from Target, 3900 N. 124th St., after he left the store with a pair of earphones he hadn’t paid for. A police officer spotted him getting on a bus at a nearby stop, detained him, found the headphones and returned with him to the store. The Target loss-prevention officer said the man had stolen the same item – “Beats by Dr. Dre” earphones – on the previous two days, and was watched closely this time. Because he appeared to be using a knife to get at the merchandise, he was not confronted by employees. The suspect was also found to be a fugitive, being wanted on a bench warrant for theft of property in Wauwatosa.

A resident of the 2500 block of North 63rd Street reported that overnight, between 10:30 p.m. and 3:20 a.m., someone smashed the front passenger window of his work van while it was parked in his driveway, but no property was missing.

Tuesday

Police responded to 13 traffic accidents during the winter season’s first measurable snowfall on Tuesday.

At 6:56 p.m., a 24-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested for possession of marijuana during a criminal records stop at North 60th and Wright streets. A patrol officer saw the man’s Cadillac DeVille and noted that its windows were so heavily tinted he could not see inside at all. He decided to run the plates, and the check came back with an Indiana warrant for his arrest. The officer smelled marijuana when speaking to the man and recovered a half-smoked blunt and two corner-cut baggies of pot, totaling just over a gram. The warrant, for shoplifting in Hobart, IN, turned out to be non-extraditable.

A Richfield man reported that a Wauwatosa residence he owns, in the 2400 block of North 65th Street, was broken into between 1 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. He told officers that he had been out and when he returned he found the rear porch door and the back door to the house both pried open. He immediately called police without touching anything, he said. He also told officers that he was readying the house for sale and there was little in the way of movable property left inside. Police cleared the residence and initially, nothing was found missing. The owner called back the next day to report that a 3-inch folding knife had been stolen.

Four habitual truancy citations were issued to students at Wauwatosa West High School: A 16-year-old Milwaukee boy misses all or part of 16 days without excuse during the first semester; 17-year-old Wauwatosa boy missed 25 days; a 17-year-old Wauwatosa boy, 16 days; and a 17-year-old Milwaukee girl, 13 days. In the cases of each of the three boys, neither school officials nor police were able to make any contact with parents despite repeated attempts. Those citations were mailed to the boys’ listed addresses.

Monday

At 6:24 p.m., two Milwaukee women, 61 and 62 years old, were arrested for theft from the Goodwill Industries store at 12121 W. Feerick St. after they were seen hiding children’s apparel in their purses. Both refused to make statements.

At 2:16 p.m., a 49-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman, both from Milwaukee, were arrested for theft from Target, 3900 N. 124th St., after they were seen leaving the store with $149 worth of baby formula. They were spotted a short distance away by a Wauwatosa police officer, and the property was recovered.

At 1:45 p.m., a 23-year-old Sussex woman was arrested for theft from the Buckle store at Mayfair Mall after a clerk reported that she had taken nine pairs of jeans into a fitting room and come out with only seven. When police stopped her, she was holding one pair of jeans, and exclaimed, “Oh my God, here!” handing them over as though she had just absent-mindedly walked out without remembering to pay. But a search of her purse turned up the other pair, and then she admitted intentionally taking both.

The general manager of the Rosebud Cinema, 6823 W. North Ave., reported that two of his tires had been slashed while his car was parked at the business between 9 and 11 p.m. on on Dec. 12.

At 10:03 a.m., an 18-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia at Wauwatosa West High School, where she is a student. Principal Frank Calarco told officers a reliable source informed him the student was in possession of marijuana that day, and he called her to the office. She was searched and found to have a pipe that smelled of burned marijuana, two empty corner-cut baggies, an empty pack of “White Grape” cigarillos (commonly emptied of tobacco and refilled with marijuana) and a very small amount of marijuana residue mixed with tobacco from the cigar.

A resident of the 1300 block of North 120th Street reported that overnight someone entered and rummaged through his unlocked truck in his driveway and stole loose change.

Saturday

At 2:06 p.m., an 18-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for battery at Luther Manor, 4545 N. 92nd St., after he twice punched and then wrestled with a security guard in the parking lot. The guard said he had seen the young man riding his bike through the parking lot, and as they had suffered a number of car entries and break-ins lately, he went to investigate. He found the suspect’s bike leaning against a van, and then the youth appeared and started screaming at him that it was his bike and he was to leave it alone. The guard, not realizing that the young man’s mother works at Luther Manor, told him he had to leave the property, at which the suspect flew into a profound and profane rage and attacked him. The suspect told police he was stopping at Luther Manor to get some money from his mother before going to work, and he lost his temper when the security guard "got into his personal space" and told him he had to leave.