Residents Suspect Acquaintances in Two Burglaries

Wauwatosa residents who were victims of two burglaries during the past week – one also including a car theft – both suspect "friends of friends" were involved in the crimes.

In one case, a woman slept through the incident even though the entry was made just feet away from where she lay.

In the other, a teenage girl may well have gotten a scolding for breaching home security rules.

Woman in deep sleep loses cards and car

A woman who lives in the in the 1200 block of North 68th Street reported that between midnight and 9:22 a.m. Thursday, someone entered her flat through an unlocked patio door while she slept and stole her purse and her backpack and then her car.

She told officers she had fallen asleep on her couch, just a few feet away from the patio door, and that she is on prescription medications that make it difficult for her to wake.

When she got up in the morning, she found the door wide open and her property gone, including keys to her apartment and car, and her credit cards and driver’s license.

She found a pile of her clothing and her empty purse outside and saw that her car was also missing.

Her roommate, who was not home that night, returned to find his Sony PS3 game system and an iPod stolen.

The two said they suspected an acquaintance – the girlfriend of a friend of theirs – who had been to the apartment a couple of times and who is a recovering heroin addict.

There's a reason we call them 'hiding places'

It's hard not to trust your friends, and even the friends of your friends, but at some point a degree of reasonable secrecy is in order.

A 17-year-old girl who lives in the 1900 block of Church Street reported Monday that between 7:15 a.m. and 12:40 p.m. someone entered her family’s locked home and stole an Xbox 360 game system and a controller.

She said she had come home from a summer school class and found that the house key, normally hidden under a rock, was missing. After fetching a spare key from her neighbor, she went in and found the video game system gone.

thought it odd that the burglar carefully relocked the door after the crime but kept the key instead of replacing it under the rock.

The girl said that a number of her friends, and a number of her boyfriend’s friends, knew where the key was hidden, and she suspects one of them was behind the illegal entry and theft.

The police report did not say so, but one could guess that with the house key still missing, they would advise the girl's parents to change their locks, find a new hiding place for the key, and recommend to their daughter that she not reveal where that place is.