Crime & Safety

Tag Team: Big Boy Burglar, 14, Takes on 2 Cops – and Loses

Two police officers, individually outweighed, show boy what teamwork and training can do after two burglaries on west side. The boy, armed with deadly weapons, never was able to pull them.

A large young teenager, who may have thought he knew some moves, learned some new ones from the masters on Monday when he had to be subdued after two burglaries on the west side of Wauwatosa.

He was big, but size isn't everything. Numbers help, and training prevails.

According to police reports:

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A 14-year-old Milwaukee boy was arrested Monday on suspicion of two burglaries after he was spotted by a resident of the 900 block of North 115th Street inside the enclosed breezeway of the home.

The homeowner told police the family had just sat down to dinner with his family when he heard the “click” of the breezeway door closing. He walked over, expecting to greet a neighbor, and instead found the boy, who also noticed him and ran.

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He told police he thought the suspect was in his late teens or 20s – a big guy, he said.

A Wauwatosa police officer searching the area soon spotted a subject matching the description, riding a bike out of the driveway of a home in the 11300 block of West Potter Road.

When the officer pulled up next to him and called out to him to stop, the boy said, “I’m good!” and kept going. The officer, for the time being, just paralleled the boy in a low-speed escort.

Another officer arrived, and the two of the blocked him with their squad cars and then stopped him on foot. The boy, the first officer said, stood 6 feet tall and was easily 200 pounds, larger than him or his female colleague.

The boy put his hands in his sweatshirt pocket and refused to remove them when ordered several times. Then he backed away when told to turn around. He still wouldn't put his hands out where officers could see them, leading them to believe he had a weapon – which, in fact, he did.

The two officers called for backups to “step it up,” but before others could arrive, the boy “escalated” to the point the two lighter-weight officers had to take him down. With no signal, both simultaneously grabbed him from either side, the first delivering three swift knee strikes to get him to buckle.

It was fortunate for all concerned, and perhaps for the boy most of all, that he didn't get a chance to pull out one of the several razor-sharp fish filleting knives he had just stolen along with the bicycle he had taken from the garage he had burglarized.

He refused to give a statement and was sent to the Juvenile Detention Center.


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