Tosa Man Spots Boys with His Bike, Gets Them Arrested

A Wauwatosa resident whose bicycle was stolen out of his sunroom got it back in short order after he happened to run across the thieves while running an errand.

At 5:45 p.m. Saturday, two 13-year-old Milwaukee boys were arrested for burglary and receiving stolen property after the man called , who chased them down on foot.

The bike's owner, a resident of the 9100 block of West North Avenue, told police that he had come home about 5 p.m. and noticed the back fence gate and his back sunroom door were open and a bicycle he kept in the room was missing.

He did not immediately report the theft because he had some business to attend to. He left the house again at about 5:30 and drove east on North Avenue.

At about 82nd Street, he said, he saw the two boys, one of them riding his bike. He pulled over and yelled at the youth, demanding his bike back.

At first, the boy ignored him, then told him he had bought the bike earlier in the day for $30. The owner again told the boy to give his bike back or he would call police, and he began to dial.

At that point, the boy crossed the street and dropped the bike, and both suspects ran.

Police caught them separately, one of them in the parking lot. He had two new, packaged video games in his pants. He admitted that he had stolen them from and that and his friend had more.

When the other boy was caught, he had four video games on him.

One boy told police that when they had left the other’s home on Milwaukee’s west side, only his friend had a bike and he was on foot. His friend kept complaining that he needed to “get a bike,” he said, and when they spotted the victim’s bike through the porch windows, they decided to steal it so they could travel faster.

They then went to Best Buy to steal the video games and were on their way home when the bike’s owner spotted them.