Police Reports: Young Sisters Make 'Game' of Getting Arrested

Just 12 and 14, siblings seem to have forged pact with older man who drives them around to shoplift merchandise for resale, abandoning them whenever they are caught.

  Two young sisters, one still a pre-teen, are being sought again by police, along with a man suspected of recruiting them to commit large retail thefts for his gain. At 6:24 p.m. Tuesday, police were called to the Pick ‘n Save store at 1717 N. Mayfair Rd. to review video footage of three known suspects who made off with a shopping cart load of diapers and baby formula worth more than $500. Police are seeking a 48-year-old Milwaukee man and two Milwaukee sisters, 12 and 14 years old. The three are well known by company security and police from numerous prior thefts and arrests, according to police reports. The two girls had been arrested Sept. 9 while fleeing from Walmart Market, 3850 N. 124th St., and the man they identified as "Shotgun" …

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Police Reports: Car Thieves Steal 1 Cirrus, Drop Off Another

A Chrysler sedan disappears, another reappears two blocks away, likely because they're easy to grab. Also, car-entry thieves hit one block of 72nd Street on successive nights.

  Two cars, two blocks, the same make and model.... A resident of an apartment in the 7700 block of North Avenue reported Saturday morning that his 2000 Chrysler Cirrus sedan had been stolen from the rear parking lot of his building. At 9:04 a.m. Sunday, police recovered a stolen Cirrus sedan in the rear parking lot of an apartment building just two blocks west of there, in the 7900 block of West North Avenue – but it was not the same car. A woman who lives in the second building called the car in as suspicious because it was parked in another resident’s assigned spot and because she had heard that a car of the same make and model had been stolen nearby the night before. It was not known just how long the recovered Cirrus had been parked …

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Police Reports: Firefighters Are Victims of Car Break-Ins

Thief or thieves target vehicles parked overnight at fire station and do serious damage but get nothing out of it.

Two Wauwatosa firefighters reported Saturday that overnight their vehicles had been broken into and rifled while they were parked at Wauwatosa Fire Station No. 2, 4187 N. Mayfair Rd. Windows of both vehicles had been smashed out, and the cover of the built-in stereo in one had been popped off, but nothing was taken. The door lock and handle had also been damaged to the point that the door couldn’t be opened, resulting in about $1,000 damage to that vehicle, a Jeep. The other firefighter reported his SUV had been rifled as well, and he thought he was missing a single credit card from his wallet but later found it, resulting in no net property loss. There was some cash and other credit cards in the firefighter's wallet as well, but somehow …

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Besides Tools of the Trade, That iPad Is a Dead Giveaway

Personal digital devices can be too tempting to pass up, too easily traced to be smart to steal, as these thieves learn.

These crooks were caught holding the pad. They also had a few suspicious items in the bag. At 10:48 p.m. Friday, two Milwaukee men, 22 and 23 years old, were arrested for receiving stolen property after a traffic stop in the 1200 block of North Mayfair Road. A patrol officer said that he had been driving behind their car when he noticed them acting suspiciously. He said the passenger continually turned and looked over his shoulder to look at him, and then the driver began to alternately slow down and speed up as if to get the officer off his tail. At one point, the officer said, the driver came to a near stop in the middle of Mayfair Road, apparently hoping the officer would pass him. He did not. He ran the car’s plates and the report came…

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Residents Report Rashes of Car Entries in Two Neighborhoods

In one small area of southwest Tosa, 15 citizens report their cars were entered on the same night. Ravenswood was also hard hit two nights earlier.

Every week, we report at least a few entries to unlocked cars by thieves scrounging for anything left inside worth even a little. It's routine for Wauwatosa police taking the reports. But this week's crop stood out even for them, as two officers noted to this reporter while they were taking his report of overnight car entries. On Wednesday morning, 15 residents of a small residential area tucked north of Blue Mound Road and west of Mayfair Road called police to report that their unlocked cars had been entered and rummaged through. In some cases, nothing was taken or at most some loose change, but others reported property losses. No damage was reported to any of the vehicles. In one case, the owner said she lost nothing but the time it took…

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What's My Line? I Paid Someone for It, So It's Mine!

New owner of stolen phone loses his cool in call to its rightful owner. He wanted her to keep him on her plan, of course.

A certain receiver of stolen property is either awfully arrogant or totally ignorant of how this whole telephone ownership thing works – like, the fact that you have to pay a regular bill for actually using it. According to a police report: A resident of the 8200 block of Stickney Avenue reported to Wauwatosa police Saturday that she believed her smart phone had been stolen from her unlocked car during the first week of April. She said that at first she thought she had just misplaced it. But then she noticed messages were being deleted from her e-mail account and realized someone had her phone and was using it. She called it from her work phone, and sure enough, a man answered. She told him the phone had been stolen from her and she wanted…

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Grandmother Shouts Down Would-Be Purse-Snatcher in Surprise Encounter

Suspect didn't realize the back seat of the car he was entering to grab a purse was occupied by a woman and her grandson.

What started out as a family shopping trip in Wauwatosa ended in a shocking encounter with a thief for a Delafield woman and her grandson. The thief was rather shocked, too, fleeing without the purse he intended to grab out of a car when the woman yelled at him – from the back seat. According to the police report: The woman called police at 2:07 p.m. Friday to say that while she was with family members shopping at DSW Shoe Warehouse, 2265 N. Mayfair Rd., a man entered their car and tried to steal her daughter’s purse. She said that she was out with her husband, daughter and grandson, and that her husband and daughter had gone into the store while she and her grandson waited in the back seat. Her daughter, who had been driving, left the car…

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Police Reports: Recent Incidents from the Tosa Crime Blotter

Washington Highlands area continues to be targeted for car and garage entries and even a car theft.

Sunday A resident of the 2000 block of North 81st Street reported that overnight someone entered her open, detached garage and the two unlocked cars inside it and stole a GPS unit and a battery jump-starter machine from them. A resident of the 8100 block of Milwaukee Avenue reported that overnight someone entered his unlocked car in his driveway and stole a GPS unit and a bag of quarters. Saturday At 4:17 p.m., a 27-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for theft at Boston Store at Mayfair Mall after he was caught trying to steal clothing worth more than $500 at retail value. At 3:05 p.m., police were called to Ray’s Liquor, 8930 W. North Ave., after staff there discovered that about an hour earlier two men had stolen three bottles of Dom …

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Editor's Notebook

Police Report: Somebody Robbed Me of My Red Bull

It comes home when someone invades your space, but you have to ask whether you invited them.

At 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, residents in the 800 block of North 60th Street reported that some time, probably between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Monday, someone entered two unlocked cars in their driveway and stole an iPhone and a can of Red Bull energy drink. That's how I would have written up this incident when I ran across it while picking up police reports – if it had happened to someone else. Since the residents in question are my wife and myself, I can say a little more, by way of an editor's epiphany. We seldom lock our cars at home. We almost never leave anything valuable in our cars. It's a deal we make with the operators who spend their evening hours roaming around neighborhoods, trying doors and rummaging through consoles: "You're welcome …

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Police Reports: Counterfeiters Still Hard at Work

Target reports fake $100 just passed by a customer, then turns over six more found out after the fact.

At 5:27 p.m. Friday, police were called to Target, 3900 N. 124th St., on a report that a woman had just passed a counterfeit $100 bill. The woman had left the area by the time officers arrived. The clerk said she thought the bill “didn’t feel right” when she accepted it, but she made change anyway while trying to stall the customer until a manager arrived. The customer rushed out of the store when managers approached. The bill proved to be a bleached and reprinted $5 bill, and Target management also turned over six more counterfeit $100 bills, all of them reprinted $5s, and one fake $10 bill. Those phonies had all been discovered after cash drawers had been turned in, long after the fact. The suspect was described as a black woman with a …

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