Police Reports: Cold Young Man Lands in Hot Water

A police officer’s friendly gesture to a chilly accident victim landed a young man in more heat than he had hoped for.

At 9:04 a.m. Friday, a 20-year-old Milwaukee man was arrested for possession of marijuana after he was involved in a traffic accident at North Mayfair Road and West Capitol Drive.

The temperature was in the 20s that morning, and a Tosa police officer said in his report that during the crash investigation he noticed one of the drivers, standing outside his damaged car, was shivering from the cold. So he asked him if he would like to sit in the back of his squad car to keep warm.

The driver gratefully accepted the invitation – not knowing he would have to be patted down for weapons first.

He had no weapon, but the officer felt something lumpy in the pocket of the man’s thermal vest, heard the sound of crinkling plastic and recognized it as similar to the feel and sound of bagged drugs.

And so it was. The bag in the man’s pocket contain nine smaller bags of pot totaling 16.2 grams. The man, who had no prior record of arrests, said he did not sell drugs on the street, only to co-workers at a meatpacking plant.

In other incidents:

Sunday

At 2:44 p.m., a 21-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for theft at Macy’s at Mayfair Mall after she concealed two shirts and a pair of jeans valued at $178 and tried to leave the store without paying. She said she intended to sell the merchandise to buy Christmas presents for her daughter. Instead, she ended up with a $429 citation.

Saturday

A 26-year-old Milwaukee man was found to have three counterfeit $100 bills in his wallet after he was taken into custody for an outstanding warrant at 8:38 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel 2303 N. Mayfair Rd. Police had been called to the hotel on complaints from guests about a loud party and a strong odor of marijuana. The man was held overnight for questioning by a Secret Service agent who said he had investigated the suspect a year before for counterfeit currency. The new case remains under investigation.

A Milwaukee man reported that some time between 6 and 6:30 p.m., someone stole both side-view mirrors off his Mercedes SUV while it was parked north of Macy’s at Mayfair.

At 11:23 a.m., a resident of the 4400 block of North 105^th Street reported that some time since 7 p.m. the night before someone had broken the rear door lock on his van while it was parked in his driveway and stolen a number of tools worth almost $2,000. Police recovered a lighter dropped next to the van that did not belong to the homeowner.

Friday

At 10:31 p.m., the manager of DSW Shoes, 2265 N. Mayfair Rd., reported that a customer had tried to pay for a pair of shoes with a counterfeit $100 bill. Police were unable to investigate the phony cash, though, because the manager had simply refused the sale and returned the bill to the suspect.

At 3:20 p.m., a stolen van was recovered parked in the 500 block of North 104^th Street. The van had been reported stolen earlier in the day to the Milwaukee police, and a homeowner had noticed it parked in front of his house at 6:30 a.m.

At 12:19 p.m., the manager of an apartment building in the 7900 block of West North Avenue reported that some time since 7 p.m. the night before someone had broken into the building, removed the coin box from a dryer and broke open two storage lockers. Nothing was missing from the lockers. During the investigation, the manager went to her nearby home in the 2300 block of North 80^th Street to retrieve a tool to make repairs and discovered that someone had tried to pry open her own door as well. The apartment building had been broken into on Wednesday as well, when money had been stolen from both the coin-operated washer and the dry