Young Tosa Couple Terrorized by Gun-Wielding Robbers

At 11:p.m. Sunday, two Wauwatosa residents, a 23-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man, reported that they were robbed at gunpoint in the woman’s driveway by three unknown males.

were called about 10 minutes later to the home in the 900 block of North 72nd Street and by that time could find no trace of the suspects.

The pair told officers that they had been standing at the foot of her drive, near his parked car, chatting, when they noticed three people approaching. Both said that at first the three were together, but a moment later they had split up, with one on the sidewalk, one in the street and the third now out of sight.

The one walking in the street came up to the pair, said, “Hey bro’," and then said “Get on the ground.” The woman saw the suspect pull out a handgun and press it to the back of her friend’s head.

As both victims lay face down in the grass, the suspect with the gun searched the male victim’s pockets, asking for money, while another stood over the young woman and the third circled the whole group.

The woman was not searched, asked for money or directly threatened with the gun.

The male victim said he had no money and told his assailant his car keys were in his other pocket. The robber took them and rifled the car, even searching the trunk.

Finally, he said, “They got nothing,” and all three ran away north on 72nd Street and then east on Aetna Court.

The man searched his car before calling police, finding the center console and glove compartment open and their contents strewn about. He found that he was missing only an older model iPod.

Neither victim was injured in the robbery.

They described the holdup men as all being about 17 to 20 years old. One was black with a dark complexion, short hair, stood 5-feet-11-inches and weighed between 170 and 190 pounds.

A second was black, 5-feet-10-inches to 6 feet tall and also weighed from 170 to 190 pounds.

The third, of unknown race, had a light complexion, stood 5-feet-6-inches to 5-feet-8-inches and weighed 130 to 150 pounds, with a thin build and short “buzzed” hair.

All were wearing shorts and T-shirts.

Second recent robbery in mostly quiet area

As general guidelines, the police recommend that victims of such crimes report the incident as soon as they feel it is safe to do so and to not touch anything that might provide evidence such as fingerprints or DNA for risk of tainting or obscuring it.

The robbery occurred in a neighborhood in Wauwatosa's Jacobus Park neighborhood, south of the Menomonee River that, while never crime-free, has always been considered among the city's safest, with fewer incidents than most reported from week to week.

Lately, though, there has been a slight uptick in this southeastern-most area of Tosa, including at North 61st Street and West Wisconsin Avenue. No gun was reported used in that incident, in which a Wauwatosa boy was beaten and robbed of $1.