Crime & Safety

Police Seek Likely Suspect in Office Burglaries

Man investigated in theft of checks now leaves evidence that he may have broken into offices, vandalized equipment and stolen computer.

A Milwaukee man already considered a possible suspect in the theft of checks from a Mayfair Road office is now considered a strong suspect in burglaries, a theft and vandalism at two offices in the same building.

The owner of , Suite 100, N. Mayfair Rd., reported that he had arrived at work about 8 a.m. Tuesday and found the door to his office unlocked and his laptop computer missing.

As police were investigating that burglary, another was called in from Suite 385, the office of Capitol Title and Closing Services. There, an employee had found the office unlocked and computer and printing equipment used and vandalized.

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There, the employee said that she first noticed that her computer was not on and that it failed to start when she pushed the power button. When she tilted it forward to check the power cord, water poured out of the case.

She noticed that a bottle of water she had left unopened on her desk was now open and half-empty. Next she discovered that the copier-printer was unplugged with a half-printed client document from 2005 on it that she had never accessed.

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She told police that she thought the vandalism was the work of the same man she had reported as a suspect in the theft of checks from her office on June 8. That suspect, a 20-year-old Milwaukee man, had been employed with the building’s cleaning service and had access to keys to her office. She thought that perhaps he had trashed her computer in retaliation.

Electronic evidence

Back in Suite 100, the business owner told police he had installed a program called “Eblaster” on his laptop, an activity tracker commonly used by parents to monitor their children’s computer use.

Among the activity he had already noticed since the theft were visits to the “men seeking men” pages on Craigslist and e-mails sent to Chase Bank asking for credit card account information.

The e-mail address used included “Mr.” and the last name of the likely suspect.

A bit later, the business owner’s wife e-mailed police more screenshots from the stolen laptop, which included visits to travel and car rental sites. Eblaster keystroke data recorded the full name of the known suspect along with his phone number. A reverse e-mail-finder program also gave the suspect’s Milwaukee address in full.

Police detectives were able to lift three latent fingerprints believed to belong to the suspect.

Besides the earlier theft of checks, the man was considered a suspect in the theft of a credit card from the same building on May 10 and had been arrested in April by for possession of a facsimile firearm.


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