Police Reports: Woman Makes the Worst of a Bad Situation

A woman who tried to brazenly and clumsily shoplift almost 50 pieces of clothing from a Tosa department store threatened to shoot a police officer during booking and then announced that she was stealing to pay for an abortion.

At 2:52 p.m. Feb. 28, the 43-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for theft from Target, 3900 N. 124th St., after she was caught trying to leave with 47 articles of clothing worth $661.41.

Store security had noticed her rapidly grabbing up men’s clothing without any regard to size or price, filling a cart. She went to the toy aisle, squatted on the floor, and pulled several Target bags of her coat.

She stuffed them full of clothes, tossed them back in the cart and headed for the exit, where she was stopped when she past the last point of purchase.

When asked whether she would make a statement, she told a Wauwatosa police officer she was going to shoot him between the eyes with an Uzi. The threat was noted in the officer's report but not acted on, as the suspect had already been thoroughly searched and clearly did not have the ways or means to carry it out.

Despite refusing to make a statement, she did volunteer that she intended to sell the stolen clothes to pay for an abortion. Because she had prior retail theft citations, a failure to appear, and because the value of goods amounted to a felony, she was sent to jail.

In other incidents:

Wednesday

A resident of the 10200 block of Glendale Avenue reported that overnight someone smashed a window in his car with a brick while it was parked in his driveway. A bag that looked like a laptop bag was stolen, but there was nothing in it but some magazines.

A resident of the 4700 block of 106th Street reported that overnight someone entered his garage and stole a radar detector from his unlocked car, and also took an iPod from a car parked in his driveway.

A resident  of the 4600 block of 104th Street reported that between 4 and 6:45 a.m. someone entered two vehicles parked there and stole about $2 in change.

March 2

At 1:17 a.m., a manager at the Walgreens at 2275 N. Mayfair Rd. reported that he had seen a man trying to leave the store with a load of laundry detergent. When he tried to stop him and said, “You need to pay for those items before you leave,” the man replied, “Nah, I’m not going to pay for this stuff,” and pushed his way past. He got into a white Ford Crown Victoria and drove off with nine large bags and bottles of detergent worth $116.91.

March 1

A Whitefish Bay woman called police at 12:25 p.m. to report multiple broken car windows in the lower Harwood Avenue parking lot in the Village. Police found three cars broken into and located the owners. Each had lost a bag or backpack, none of them containing anything more valuable than some textbooks. One backpack was recovered, unzipped but missing no property.

At 21:41 a.m., an officer parked north of Potter Road on Mayfair Road monitoring speed saw a southbound car approaching at high speed and clocked him at 62 mph. As he pulled out to pursue, the driver accelerated to 80 mph and went through a red light, then pulled a fast U-turn at Potter Road. Two other officers joined the pursuit up Mayfair, reaching speeds of about 90 mph. The suspect turned right onto West North Avenue and raced east speeds over 100 mph. As he entered the narrow East Tosa business district at that speed, now with four officers, pursuing, the chase was called off for safety reasons.

Feb. 27

At 12:55 p.m., a Milwaukee woman reported that she had been bitten by a dog at a home in the 2400 block of North 66th Street. She had been sent there by a home cleaning service as a substitute for the regular housekeeper. The dog barked and growled at her, she said, and the homeowner advised her to allow the dog to smell her. It did, and walked away. But a few minutes later, it lunged at the victim and bit her on the arm. Noting there were no puncture wounds, the homeowner asked her stay and finish cleaning her house. The victim declined and left. She called her supervisor, who advised her to call police. The dog was vaccinated but not licensed. The owner was told that she had 10 days to license the animal or face a citation.

A resident of the 1200 block of North 120th Street reported that someone had stolen a GPS unit from his unlocked car, and the report noted that another car entry had occurred at a neighboring address.

Feb. 26

At 3:19 p.m., two 18-year-old Milwaukee men were arrested for theft and other charges after they were seen stealing sunglasses from Solstice Sunglass Boutique in Mayfair Mall. Security called police and tailed the suspects into Macy’s, where officers arrived and stopped them. One of the men had a bag of marijuana in his pocket and had four open criminal cases, two thefts, bail jumping and resisting arrest. The other man was on probation for a conviction on being a felon in possession of a firearm. They were delivered to the County Jail.

A resident of the 600 block of Elm Spring Avenue reported that overnight someone had entered and rummaged through her car, but nothing was taken.

A resident of the 1600 block of Church Street reported that overnight someone had entered and rummaged through three cars parked there, but nothing was taken.

Feb. 25

A Suamico, Wis., man reported that between 5:35 and 8 p.m., while he was at Dave & Buster’s, 2201 N. Mayfair Rd., someone smashed a window in his car and made off with bags belonging to himself and a co-worker, containing two laptop computers, an iPad and assorted clothing and other property, all together worth an estimated $7,020.