Police Reports: Young Teens Go on Crime Spree

At 10:29 a.m. Jan. 30, two Milwaukee boys, one 14 and one 15, were arrested for retail theft and theft of property after they fled from the Pick ‘n Save at 6950 W. State St. with six bottles of liquor, three apiece.

The two boys were soon spotted heading north on bicycles in the 1800 block of North 74th Street. An officer stopped them, found the liquor still on them and arrested them.

The boys both told the same story of having run to the home of the 15-year-old’s grandmother on 74thStreet to retrieve their bikes. But in fact, police soon learned that the bikes had been stolen from a rack at Wauwatosa East High School.

A records check showed that the 14-year-old had only two loitering tickets, but the 15-year-old had been arrested three times for armed robbery and was on juvenile supervision. He was sent to the Juvenile Detention Center.

A fine young couple

At 5:19 a.m. Jan. 30, a 28-year-old Hartland woman was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia and on warrants after police were called to Extended Stay America Hotel, 11121 W. North Ave., about a woman screaming in a guest room.

An officer knocked on the door and the woman answered, and told him she and her boyfriend were having an argument but there was no physical violence. Her boyfriend, who gave his address as the hotel, concurred, but the officer sensed something fishy – he had a hunch the woman had given him a false name.

When her boyfriend of one year could not tell the officer privately what her last name was, he knew he was right and ran the woman’s prints. He learned her true name and that she was on probation through the Department of Corrections, and was wanted by Pewaukee police for resisting arrest.

She admitted she’d lied about her name because she had a no-contact order with her boyfriend as a condition of her probation. She was also found to have a rig of three syringes and a tourniquet that she admitted were for shooting heroin. She was sent to the County Jail.

A case of unmistaken identity

At 3:28 p.m. Jan. 29, a manager at the Walgreens at 2656 Wauwatosa Ave. reported that three men had just run out of the store, each with a bottle of liquor. They had gotten into a gold van and driven off, and the license plate was covered with a garbage bag.

Video showed clear images of the suspects’ faces, and a cashier volunteered that she recognized one of them as someone with whom she had gone to high school. Moreover, she had his phone number because she had just happened to run into him the day before as a gas station.

She gave police his first name and the phone number. When the 19-year-old Milwaukee man answered a call from police, he at first denied having been at the Walgreens. When police explained that they had video and a positive ID of him, he admitted he had been.

He promised to appear at the police station, along with his two companions, on Wednesday evening, but none of them showed up and the phone was turned off. Police were still seeking him for questioning at last report.

In other incidents:

Sunday

A West Allis man reported that between 5 and 9 p.m. his car was stolen from the parking lot of Faiths Creation Christian Church, 4400 N. Mayfair Rd. He said he was not certain he had locked the car, but all keys were accounted for. Milwaukee police notified the Wauwatosa PD at 10:15 p.m. that the car had been found, had damage to the steering column and was undrivable. It was towed and held for the owner to recover.

At 1:36 a.m., a 37-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for battery after she punched a Waukesha woman in the face at Mo’s Irish Pub, 10842 Blue Mound Rd. The victim said that she and a friend were in the bathroom when the suspect came in and said that they had bumped into her in the bar and hadn’t said they were sorry, and she wanted to “take it outside.” The victim said she told the suspect they were just using the restroom and then would be leaving. The suspect waited near the tavern door and threw a punch, causing swelling and bruising over the victim’s eye. The suspect admitted, “Yeah, I punched some girl” because “she was talking crap about me in the bathroom.” She also admitted it was probably the wrong thing to do.

Jan. 30

At 5:28 p.m., a 46-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for felony theft from Boston Store at Mayfair Mall after store security called police to say that they were struggling with a suspect. When officers arrived, the suspect had been subdued and was being searched in the store’s loss prevention office. He had 12 pieces of stolen jewelry worth $900 retail. He said he was homeless and intended to sell the pieces to buy food.

A League City, Texas, woman reported that overnight someone had smashed a window in her rented car and stolen a laptop computer while she was staying at the Radisson Hotel, 2303 N. Mayfair Rd. She said she had left the computer in view on the back seat.

Jan. 29

At 10:22 p.m., a 37-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for theft from the State Street Pick ‘n Save after he was recognized as a repeat thief and was suspected to be about to steal a number of cans of baby formula. He left the store just as officers were arriving, but he had time to get in his car with two other people and take off. Officers followed until he turned in to the parking lot of St. Bernard’s Parish, 7474 Harwood Ave. Realizing his mistake, he tried to turn around and leave, but officers blocked him in with their squads. His first words were, “I’m the guy. They didn’t have anything to do with it. I got everything on me.” Eight cans of baby formula worth $135.92 were found in his jacket.

Jan. 28

At 10:35 a.m., a 21-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for theft from the Buckle store at Mayfair Mall after she left the store with a pair of Capri pants hidden in her purse and then ran when she was spotted elsewhere in the mall. Police rounded her up in the parking lot. Although she had stolen only the capris, it turned out she had cut security sensors from five pairs of jeans, ruining them and bringing the total theft and damage to $632. She was found to have six warrants for her arrest, including one for aggravated assault.