Two Women Seen Running from Home with Bags of Stolen Goods

A neighbor alerted police when he saw two women leaving a Wauwatosa residence and then noticed a missing window screen on the home.

But the women saw him calling and ran, and according to police reports, an unaccountable delay in the 911 system kept them from getting to the scene in time to possibly catch up to the burglars.

At 3:26 p.m. July 30, officers were sent to the home in the 2500 block of 86th Street after a man out walking his dog reported the situation.

He said he'd been coming down the block when he saw two heavy-set women walk out of a property ahead of him, each carrying a large tote bag. He thought nothing of it at the moment, he said, but when he reached the residence, he saw that a screen had been taken off a side window.

He turned around and looked again at the women and realized this might have been a burglary. When he took out his cell phone to call police, they noticed and ran.

The witness believed it was about 3:15 when he called 911. His call was directed to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, to whom he gave a statement, but for some reason it took several minutes before the call was relayed to the Wauwatosa police, according to their reports.

With perhaps as long as 10 minutes or more elapsed before Wauwatosa could send officers on the way, the burglars were long gone.

Officers found that the window behind the missing screen had been smashed, and the master bedroom of the home had been ransacked, mainly for a large amount of jewelry.

No one else in the neighborhood who was home at the time saw or heard anything, and no escape vehicle was seen by the sole witness.

He described the burglars as follows:

Two white or possibly Hispanic women, both 30 to 40 years old, both short and stocky, about 5-feet to 5-feet-3-inches tall, both 140 to 160 pounds, both with short hair. Both were wearing black pants, one with a darker green shirt and the other a light green one. Each was carrying a large white tote bag on her shoulder.

Anyone with information about the incident should call the Wauwatosa Police Department at 414-471-8430, or Wauwatosa Crime Stoppers at 414-771-8672.