Crime & Safety
Descriptions Match in Two Brash Business Thefts
At Bowlero, man manages to steal keys but then tries to break in by force, and later at seafood restaurant, a strongly similar subject grabs some cash and bolts.
On the same day, two Wauwatosa businesses reported rather brazen crimes – and based on the description, it was quite possibly the same character who, foiled in one attempt to get some cash, tried and succeeded in another method.
At 5:54 p.m. May 24, police were called to AMF Bowlero, 11737 W. Burleigh St., about a theft in the morning and an attempted burglary that evening.
A shift supervisor told officers she arrived at work at 7:25 a.m. and began counting money into the cash registers. At about 8:15, before opening, she encountered a strange man inside and asked him what he was doing there.
He told her he was cleaning, she said, and she took him at his word because it wasn't unusual for the cleaning crew to be there in the morning. He asked where the bathroom was and she told him. Then she finished counting out cash and put the bar keys into a bag and left it on a counter behind the bar.
She then went to open the doors for a school group, and a few minutes later an employee asked her where the keys were. The answer was, they were gone, but she thought they had just been misplaced.
When the keys hadn't been found by 5:45 p.m., she asked the manager to check the video to see if it offered any clue as to where the keys had gone. It showed the "cleaner" sneaking out from behind a column and filching them from the bag.
And there was more: At 5:27 p.m., not 20 minutes before, the same man was recorded trying to kick in the door to the back office where the safe is kept. When the door failed to give way, he left.
Police viewed the recording and confirmed the woman's description of a black man 35 to 40 years old, around 6 feet tall, weighing 170 to 190 pounds, with a receding hairline and medium brown complexion, wearing a gray sweatsuit top and faded blue jeans.
Later at a nearby restaurant...
At 9:29 p.m., officers were called to McCormick & Schmick's restaurant, 2550 N. Mayfair Rd., on a report that a man had just pulled a crude but effective con job on an employee and gotten away with $50 cash.A server told police he had been near the kitchen when another employee told him there was a man at the front asking for change for a $50 bill.
The server took two 20's and a 10 out of his pocket, walked up to the man and said, "I have it."
The man leaned forward and snatched it out of his hand and said, "OK, thanks," then turned and ran out the door.
He and other employees gave officers a description that almost precisely matched that of the suspect in the incidents at Bowlero in every respect, including the gray sweatsuit top and faded blue jeans.
He was last seen running south from the restaurant. Police searched the area but were unable to locate him.
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