Crime & Safety

Robbery Suspect Exposes Himself, Demands Sex on Busy Street Corner

Failing to snatch purse of victim with 5-year-old child, man pursues her and commits lewd act at bus shelter in mid-afternoon, then does it again to another victim four blocks away.

A man* was arrested at 3:20 p.m. Tuesday for attempted strong-arm robbery and for lewd and lacisvious behavior after he tried to snatch one woman's purse and then exposed himself to her and a short time later to another woman, according to police.

Officers were dispatched to North 60th Street at West North Avenue after a woman called to say she had been accosted twice, near and at the bus stop, by a man carrying a large can of beer.

Just as one officer was approaching that victim, another officer said he had spotted and stopped the suspect in the parking lot at Radio Shack, 6421 W. North Ave., and also had another victim on the scene.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

That officer had been coming east on North Avenue when he saw a man matching the description given, including the can of beer. About 75 feet in front of the suspect, he said, was a woman walking hurriedly away with her dog and looking over her shoulder as if she were trying to get away from the man following her.

When she saw the officer, she started to wave, and waited until the suspect was secured and more officers arrived.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

She then told police she had been walking her dog on the north side of the street when she saw the suspect cross the street toward her and in front of her. Suddenly, she said, he pulled his pants down.

She quickly turned and crossed to the south side of the street, she said, and he followed, ordering her, "(Explective), get back here!" A moment later, to her relief, she spotted the squad car.

Bizarre and brazen behavior in broad daylight

Meanwhile, back at the bus stop, the victim who had called police was telling an officer that she had been walking toward the bus stop at 60th with her 5-year-old in hand when someone grabbed and yanked at her purse, which she was carrying by the strap over her shoulder.

She yelled at him loudly and pulled back, she said, drawing the attention of a number of people on the street.

She said the suspect walked rapidly away for about 200 feet, but to her surprise turned around and approached her again after she and her child sat down in the bus shelter. It was only then she noticed he was holding a 24-ounce can of Budweiser.

He sat down next to her, she said, and asked her, "Do you drink?" She said, "No," and he brazenly asked her whether she performs oral sex. Shocked, she told him he was being very inappropriate around her child and told him to leave.

Instead, he stood up in front of her and her child, pulled down his pants to expose himself, and demanded she perform sex upon him. She said she hid her face and covered the face of her child, repeated that his behavior in front of her child was unthinkable, and threatened to call police. But he continued to demand sex until she actually did call 911, when he walked away to the west.

After piecing together both episodes, police asked the woman who had been at the bus stop to view a photo array, and she positively identified her assailant as the man arrested at Radio Shack.

___________________________

* Editor's note: On advice of the city attorney, the Wauwatosa Police Department is no longer providing the names, addresses, ages, physical description or other personal information about criminal suspects, as well as of victims and witnesses, if any information in an incident report was drawn from the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles.

This is because of a case being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Palatine vs. Senne, in which the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of a Palatine resident who filed suit over a parking ticket claiming that personal information printed on it and left on his car overnight violated his privacy under the 1994 Drivers Privacy Protection Act.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.

More from Wauwatosa