Police Reports: Woman Is a Ghoul to Goodwill

It's just sad to begin with that a Goodwill Industries store, of all places, has to hire someone to spend all day on the lookout for thieves.

But it does, thanks to people like this woman whose tricks were no treat.

At 8 p.m. Thursday, a 32-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for theft after she tried to steal a number of Halloween costume pieces from the at 12121 W. Feerick St.

The Goodwill loss-prevention officer said he saw the woman enter the store and head straight for the Halloween section.

As he watched, she stuffed merchandise into her purse, then walked around the store for a few minutes before heading out the door.

The store officer stopped her outside and recovered a woman’s full costume, two Halloween corsets, two children’s pumpkin shirts, a black shirt and a pocket mirror, all together priced at $40.43.

The woman had three prior arrests for retail theft. She declined to make a statement.

In other recent incidents:

Sunday

At 4:33 p.m., a 20-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for retail theft after he was caught trying to leave in with clothing from which he had removed the security sensors. A store security officer stopped him and recovered the two T-shirts the suspect had taken, but he refused to be detained. Mall security monitored him on camera and reported his position to police, who chased him down as he ran through the parking lot. The man’s record included numerous convictions for retail theft and habitual criminality. He also had an outstanding warrant through Waukesha County for theft in the amount of $810. He was taken to the Milwaukee County Jail.

At 12:15 a.m., a 30-year-old Franklin man was arrested for drunken driving, first offense, after he was stopped for a defective headlight at North Mayfair and Watertown Plank roads. He appeared nervous to the officer, his eyes were glassy and bloodshot, and he smelled of alcohol. He admitted having drunk at least three beers in just over an hour and blew a .12 blood alcohol concentration on a breath test.

Saturday

At 1:50 p.m., a Greenfield woman reported that someone had broken the front passenger window in her car while it was parked in the 9900 block of West Wisconsin Avenue. The window was not smashed in but badly cracked, and the car was not entered.

At 12:35 p.m., a 16-year-old Milwaukee boy was arrested for theft after he was caught trying to steal a $68 pair of jeans from at Mayfair Mall.

At 11:58 p.m., an 18-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for possession of marijuana during a field investigation stop in the 4700 block of North 104th Street. He had a couple of arrests on his record for possession of a controlled substance, and when asked if he would submit to a search, he admitted he had a small bag of “weed” in his pocket, amounting to .68 gram.

Friday

A Milwaukee woman reported that her wallet was stolen from her purse as she was ending her work shift at , 2545 N. Mayfair Rd., and her debit card was later used in at least two fraudulent transactions. She said she was making some purchases of her own and set her purse on the counter. Two women known to her to be banned from the store for prior thefts were among several customers she let go ahead of her in line while she searched for her store charge number. She suspects that they pilfered her wallet. She did not say why she did not call anyone’s attention to the two known, banned subjects in the store. Detectives are investigating.

At 5:39 p.m., a 20-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for theft after she was caught leaving Ragstock in Mayfair Mall with clothing hidden in her purse.

At 3:04 p.m., police were called to Discovery Clothing, 2875 N. Mayfair Rd., to recover a counterfeit $20 bill confiscated from a customer. The customer, a Milwaukee woman, remained at the store to talk to police and told them she had received the bill in change about an hour and a half earlier at a Milwaukee store and did not know it was fake. She had no other phony money on her and was released.

Thursday

At 8:32 p.m., a 17-year-old Milwaukee girl was arrested for criminal damage to property, trespassing and on a Waukesha County warrant for theft after she ripped the security sensors off two pairs of jeans at in Mayfair Mall. She initially gave police a false name because of the warrant and her current ban from the mall and tried to deny that she had done anything wrong because she hadn’t actually stolen anything. She later admitted that she had intended to steal the jeans and tore off the sensors only to realize the jeans were not her size.