Bell-Ringing Burglar Confounds, Frightens Tosa Woman

A Wauwatosa woman was the victim of a strange and frightening home invasion last week that looked like some kind of inside job but left the victim and police puzzled as to who might have done it.

At 8:37 p.m. Tuesday, a 63-year-old woman was alone at her home in the 2700 block of North 73^rd Street and had just gone to bed when the front doorbell began ringing repeatedly.

When she got up to check, the back doorbell began to ring. As she went toward that door, the front bell started ringing again, so she turned that way. Then, she said, the bell at the back door again began to ring.

This time she got to the door in time to see a man standing outside. She believes he saw her, too, and then ran down the alley. When she looked out a side window, she saw a black SUV driving down the alley.

She finally looked up the non-emergency phone number for the Police Department and called in. When police arrived, they found that the front door had in fact been pried open.

A close inspection of the home with the owner showed that the burglar had apparently gone straight to a hallway dresser and opened only the drawer in which she keeps her cash and checks. Nothing else appeared to have been disturbed.

Cash, a money order and a 2010 federal tax refund check were taken. Despite the fact that it looked as though the burglar knew exactly where to find her money, the woman said she keeps very much to herself and there was no one she could think of who might have known about the drawer.

On Wednesday, a woman who lives in the 3300 block of North 78^th Street reported finding a purse on the sidewalk with identification inside. It proved to belong to the woman whose home had been burglarized, and she had at first failed to notice it missing and then forgotten to report it.

Police canvassed the area, and a neighbor told police Wednesday that about the time of the burglary he had heard a female voice shouting “Get in the car!” and had looked out to see a young man or boy get into a dark-colored SUV, possibly a Chevy Blazer, in the alley, which then left.

He had not been aware of the burglary and did not report what he had seen. No other neighbors saw or heard anything.