Crime & Safety

Police: 14-Year-Old Robbed Woman of Phone on Bus

Youth may face a serious felony charge for grabbing phone out of woman's hand. He was one of a group of five who seemingly conspired to rob her – but whose friends thought better and brought back her property.

A 14-year-old faces a possible charge of armed robbery after a woman identified him as the boy who grabbed her cell phone and wrenched it away from her on a county bus, according to Wauwatosa police reports.

At 5:48 p.m. Jan. 12, police were called to North Mayfair Road and West Burleigh Street on a report of a strong-arm robbery and later arrested the Milwaukee boy in the incident.

A Milwaukee woman flagged down officers at Kmart, 3201 N. Mayfair, and told them she had gotten on a No. 60 county bus at Mayfair Mall, and that five young males also got on after her.

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She was talking on her cell phone during the ride, she said, and when they got to Mayfair and Burleigh, the teenagers got up to get off the bus. The second of the boys to pass her, she said, grabbed her phone and pried it from her hand, then ran off the bus.

The three boys behind him, she told officers, then blocked her from following him.

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When she was able to get off the bus, she said, she chased the boys to the Kmart.

As officers were speaking to her, four of the boys returned with the phone and handed it back to the victim.

The fifth boy was located by K9 Officer Addy and his officer-handler. He was brought back to the scene, and the woman positively identified him as the one who had stolen her phone.

The boy said he took the woman’s phone because his wasn’t working and he needed a new one. His mother, when contacted, told police he was “an out-of-control teen."

The bus driver waited at the stop, aware that a robbery had occurred, and also gave police a statement. Wauwatosa police were awaiting video footage from the bus.

The boy was released to his mother on a promise to appear when or if charges were filed in Children’s Court. 


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