UPDATE: Caught! Two Girls Arrested in Rash of Thefts at East High

The Wauwatosa Police have released a report detailing the arrest Wednesday of two students at East High School and recovery of stolen property from at least eight separate theft incidents at the school over the previous week and a half.

Two Milwaukee girls who were enrolled at East, one 17 and one 16, were taken into custody after police responded to a fresh theft report and learned of evidence implicating them.

Most of the ongoing losses had been from the girls’ gym locker room, and most had occurred during a fifth-hour gym class. When a girl returned to her locker after a swim during that period Wednesday and noticed her soccer shoes and iPod missing, she reported the theft immediately, before the class ended.

School officials called police and officers held the entire class of students outside the locker room while they searched it. During the search, several girls told officers they had seen two students, whom they named, enter the locker room during the period, when the did not have gym class.

Other girls reported that while outside during class activities, they had seen the two leave the building, go to a car and return.

A school official went to the classroom where the 17-year-old should have been studying and found her absent without permission. However, she had left her backpack in the room, and when it was searched, an iPod with its battery run down was found.

The music player was attached to a charger, and a student whose phone had been taken in an earlier incident stopped officers to report that her phone log showed three calls that had been made since the theft.

The 17-year-old then showed up at the school office to find out why her backpack had been taken, and officers began questioning her. At first she denied taking anything and lied repeatedly about why she and the other girl had been in the locker room and visited her car.

During the questioning, others officers were tracing the now partially recharged iPod to its owner and the phone calls to the 17-year-old suspect’s boyfriend. She eventually admitted to that day’s theft and told officers she would cooperate from then on.

However, when asked for her car keys, she lied again and said she had lost them, probably in a bathroom. The bathroom was searched, no keys were found, and the girl was told her car would be towed to the police station and searched there.

Finally, the girl admitted hiding the keys inside a feminine hygiene pad dispenser in the bathroom, where they were found. In the meantime, the girl also implicated her 16-year-old accomplice.

When taken to her car, the 17-year-old unlocked and produced the iPod stolen earlier in the day, but when asked about the soccer shoes she said she did not have them.

Officers searched the car and soon found the shoes and four cell phones. The girl again lied and said the phones belonged to her and friends, but all were later found to be stolen.

In the end, after police searched the two girls, the car and their homes, they recovered five phones, three digital cameras and the iPod music players and cleared eight theft complaints. The value of the items was set at $2,150.

Both girls were arrested for theft, and the 16-year-old was given an added count of forgery when she was found in possession of five counterfeit $20 bills. The two were released to their mothers.