Category Archives: Crime

May 14, 2013 · 8:58 pm

More Details Emerge On Sikh Temple Shooter … And His South Milwaukee Connection

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the story, which quotes FBI documents as saying Wade Michael Page lived for a time in South Milwaukee. From it:

According to the FBI search warrant, Page was in a relationship with Misty Cook from April 2011 to June 2012. The document does not say how they met, but at first it was a long-distance relationship. Page, 40, and Cook, 32, traveled back and forth between Wisconsin and North Carolina from April to October 2011 to visit each other, it says.

During Cook’s trip to visit Page in May 2011, the couple visited a shooting range and Cook fired Page’s 9mm handgun, according to the warrant.

Cook cannot legally handle a firearm because of a previous conviction. After the Oak Creek shooting, police searched her South Milwaukee apartment and found a gun. No charges have been filed in state or federal court. State and federal prosecutors did not return calls for comment Monday on Cook.

Cook and Page were active participants in an online message forum for a white supremacist group and joined in dozens of the same conversations – including some well before the time that Page is thought to have moved to this area, according to research by the Anti-Defamation League and the Journal Sentinel.

The Journal Sentinel reviewed posts under the names “End Apathy” and “Luluroman” on a message board for a white supremacy group known as the “Hammerskins.” According to the league, Page frequently posted under the name End Apathy – the name of his skinhead band – and Cook used the Luluroman handle.

In October 2011, Page used the forum to promote his band. That same month, Page moved from North Carolina to live with Cook in South Milwaukee. Page was an alcoholic skinhead, Cook later told the FBI.

In January 2012, Page encouraged Cook to join “Crew 38,” a Chicago-based white power group. Toward the end of their relationship, Page became increasingly interested in conspiracy theories and videos online, according to the newly unsealed documents. The warrant does not detail what Page was looking at on the web, but it said Cook was disturbed by it.

The warrant also says Page was active on social media, having at least two Facebook pages, under the names “Wade Hammer” and “Jackboot.” …

Page and Cook split in June 2012, and he moved into an apartment in Cudahy.

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May 6, 2013 · 9:04 am

South Milwaukee Liquor Store Robbed

South Milwaukee police say there was an armed robbery Sunday night at the King’s Row liquor store at 1202 Milwaukee Ave.

Here is the press release …

Please be advised that the SMPD responded to an armed robbery which had occurred at about 8:30pm on May 5, 2013 at King’s Row Liquor in the 1200blk of Milwaukee Avenue.  A lone, masked gunman entered the store armed with a handgun demanding cash. No persons were injured during the robbery. The case remains under investigation.

Check out coverage from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Fox 6 and CBS 58.

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April 1, 2013 · 11:32 pm

Caterpillar Security Guard/Crime Solver To Be Honored

A security guard at the South Milwaukee Caterpillar plant is getting his due for helping solve an armed robbery in last fall — an honor from the Oak Creek Police Department.

Check out the Oak Creek Patch story here.

And congratulations to Josh Najda!

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January 25, 2013 · 3:25 pm

Alert: “Spoofing” Scammer Posing As South Milwaukee Police Demands Money

Just got this from South Milwaukee Police … scary stuff.

South Milwaukee Police have received a report from an elderly citizen that they had received several phone calls from a company trying to solicit money.  The caller identified them self as being from the “Martinez Law Firm” in Lawrence Kansas with a phone number of 785-371-3081.   The caller told the citizen if she did not pay $250.00 by 2pm today that an arrest warrant would be issued for her. 

A short time later she received another call from a person giving the name of an officer who works for the South Milwaukee Police Department.  The caller ID also showed that the call had originated from the South Milwaukee Police Department.  The caller at this time threatened to arrest her on the warrant if she did not pay by 2pm.    The citizen then came to the police department to find out what was happening.

Investigation revealed that this is a scam that has been running and that the suspect caller had “spoofed” the number to make it appear that the call had come from the South Milwaukee Police Department.  The first call was also determined to not have come from a law firm in Kansas.   The call actually was found to have originated  somewhere in Pakistan.   The caller confessed to running a scam to try to get money from people by saying they were the police. 

Due to the international nature of this incident, enforcement actions will be  difficult.  The best protection is for citizens to be aware of this scam and report these issues to their local police.

Citizens should know that the South Milwaukee Police Department will not call people on the phone regarding these types of issues.

If you receive a phone call of this nature, please contact your local police department. 

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January 18, 2013 · 6:48 am

SWAT Team Called To South Milwaukee Home

Update: WISN is reporting two people were arrested, and the woman was found unharmed. TMJ4 is reporting the arrests were made in Milwaukee. 

South Milwaukee Police and the Milwaukee County SWAT team were called to a home on 3rd Avenue Thursday night.

Here is the press release from police:

On 1/17 at about 916pm South Milwaukee Officers were dispatched to an address in the 2400blk of 3rd Av. Regarding a female subject who was reportedly being held against her will. Milwaukee County SWAT was contacted to assist, the residence in question was searched, and the female subject has yet to be located.  – Investigation to continue.

TMJ4 also has a story and video, and it says bomb squad members were also on scene. I’ll keep you posted if I learn more.

Also, police are investigating a robbery at the BP station on 10th and Marquette Avenue in South Milwaukee Thursday night. The employee was not injured. I’ll let you know if I get more information.

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January 7, 2013 · 9:18 pm

More On The Recent Tire Slashings

The new NOW police blotter has details (like approximate location) on many of the recent tire slashing incidents.

Check out the story here.

I count more than 20 incidents primarily in and around downtown, give or take a few blocks, and it wasn’t just tires being slashed. Other vandalism like broken car mirrors were reported.

If you have any information on the incidents, please contact the South Milwaukee Police Department at 768-8060. And I’ll keep you posted.

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· 5:27 pm

Armed Robbery Reported In South Milwaukee; Gun Found In Oak Creek Sikh Temple Parking Lot

Here are details from the South Milwaukee Police Department …

On the evening of January 5th, 2013, SMPD received a call of an armed robbery  in the 800 block of Lakeview Ave.  A suspect vehicle was later observed by SMPD officers, and the vehicle was stopped in the 7500 block of Howell Ave. in Oak Creek.  A foot chase with two subjects that fled the vehicle resulted in their apprehension.  A firearm believed to have been used in the robbery was later recovered in the parking lot of the Sikh Temple.  This case remains under investigation.  It is believed all suspects have been taken into custody.

Here is coverage from Oak Creek Patch. I’ll keep you posted.

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January 3, 2013 · 9:14 pm

Rash Of Tire Slashings Reported

More than 40 people reported having their tires slashed in South Milwaukee and Cudahy last weekend.

From South Milwaukee Police Chief Ann Wellens:

All areas of the city were hit but predominately the center area of the city.  Occurred during the early morning hours of December 29th.  The damage was mostly tire slashings but there were a few side mirrors that were damaged.

I’ll keep you posted on both cases if and when I hear more. In the meantime, please stay vigilant, and safe. Report any suspicious behavior to police.

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December 15, 2012 · 10:06 pm

Arrests After Reports Of Shots Fired, Standoff In Cudahy

South Milwaukee was reportedly among the departments who responded to the incident Saturday afternoon on Packard Avenue.

Check out stories in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WTMJ radio. From WTMJ:

It began around 8:30 Saturday morning when witnesses reported shots exchanged between two men in the alley behind the apartments in the 62-hundred block of Packard.

One man was taken in for questioning right away, but a second ran into the apartments, and holed-up inside for four hours. 

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December 14, 2012 · 12:14 pm

Prayers

Another mass shooting. Another senseless tragedy.

Please keep Friday’s victims and their friends and families in your thoughts and prayers. And hold your kids a bit closer tonight. I know I will … because I know that could have been my kindergartner or second-grader at the end of that gun.

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November 29, 2012 · 8:51 pm

Charges In South Milwaukee’s Summer Break-Ins

A 36-year-old South Milwaukee man suspected in local break-ins this summer pleaded guilty to several felonies this week.

Leonard Caruso, 401 Nicholson Ave., will be sentenced in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Jan. 4.

Caruso was charged with seven cases of felony burglary, six in Milwaukee County, according to online court records. He was convicted of three counts after his guilty plea, with the others being “read in.”

It’s unclear which counts he pleaded guilty to and which he didn’t.

But several of the charges stemmed from these South Milwaukee cases, police told me.

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October 25, 2012 · 7:03 pm

Alertness Pays Off: More On How A Cat Security Guard Caught A Suspected Bank Robber

Update: Fox 6 has a story on the criminal complaint alleging the suspect “wanted to be caught.”

Oak Creek Patch has the story of Josh Najda, a Caterpillar security guard whose oberservation skills helped nab a South Milwaukee man suspected in an Oak Creek bank robbery.

Here is the story. From it:

Najda is a firefighter with the town of Vernon who was off duty at the time but listening to his police scanner about 11 a.m., when word came of a robbery of TCF Bank in Oak Creek. He heard the initial description of the suspect — a white man with thin build, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and tan pants — and filed it away in his memory.

Later that day, he was at his job at Caterpillar’s South Milwaukee facility when he saw a person walk past his guard house and speak with a CAT employee. The man seemed nervous and made a lot of unusual movements, Najda told me. But his actions didn’t pose a threat, so Najda didn’t call police.

“Honestly, I just thought that he may have been talking to a family member,” Najda said.

It was what he did next that gave Najda pause. The man put on a fake black mustache and a pair of sunglasses, which struck Najda as weird (rightfully so, I might add). So he wrote down his exact description and tucked it into his pocket.

And the rest is history …

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October 22, 2012 · 5:48 pm

Report: South Milwaukee Man Arrested In Oak Creek Bank Robbery

Oak Creek Patch has the story …

According to the Oak Creek Police Department logbook, a security guard at Caterpillar’s South Milwaukee facility reported seeing a man matching the description of the suspect talking with a Caterpillar employee.

The employee told police the suspect is his roommate. A detective then went to the suspect’s South Milwaukee apartment and arrested him.

Online court records show the man, who had not been charged as of noon Monday, has open cases in Milwaukee and Racine counties for misdemeanor retail theft. He remains in Milwaukee County Jail.

Nice job, Caterpillar security guard.

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October 2, 2012 · 9:56 pm

Report: Charges Issued In Fatal South Milwaukee Crash

A Cudahy man has been charged in connection with a Sept. 17 crash on College Avenue near Divine Mercy School that left a passenger in his vehicle dead.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the story. From it:

Derek J. Griebenow had consumed more than a half-gallon of beer in the hours before he blacked out at the wheel of his 2001 Pontiac Grand Am the evening of Sept. 17 and flipped near Divine Mercy School, 695 College Ave., South Milwaukee.

Jerome V. Robertson, 54, died later from injuries suffered in the crash.

According to the criminal complaint:

Griebenow woke to find to himself in the back seat of his overturned car, unable to get out, so he lighted a cigarette and called 911.

He admitted to police he’d been drinking beer all day, and had capped his day with a shot of whiskey and a beer at Brother’s Bar, where he met Robertson. Robertson, who suffered from a cognitive disability, was asking for money for food, and Griebenow offered to buy him drinks instead until other patrons gave Griebenow a hard time and he decided to take Robertson somewhere for a meal.

He said Robertson commented that he was going too slow so he “punched it” and then blacked out.

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· 7:33 am

Woman Charged In South Milwaukee Shooting

Update: Fox 6 has more details from the criminal complaint. NOW has more details too.

A 45-year-old South Milwaukee woman has been charged with attempted first degree intentional homicide following last week’s shooting at the South Towne Apartments.

Laura Lee Saxton, 319 Southtowne Place #101, was charged on Friday.

Her preliminary hearing is this Friday.

The victim, a 56-year-old man, was treated and released from Froedtert Hospital, police said.

From the Fox 6 report:

Saxton is accused of shooting a 56-year-old Andrew Gibas in the head in an apartment on Wednesday, September 26th.

Gibas told police Saxton is his roommate. Gibas told police he noticed on Monday, September 24th his two guns were missing — and said he questioned Saxton and her boyfriend about the guns.

Gibas told police Saxton came into his bedroom on Wednesday night and laid next to him. Gibas told police he thought that was strange because Saxton does not normally do that, and they have separate bedrooms. Gibas told police Saxton told her he was mad at him, but that he would not know why she was mad. Gibas said Saxton then shot him several times in the head.

Gibas struggled with Saxton for the gun, and tried to grab his cell phone, according to the criminal complaint in the case — but Saxton’s boyfriend grabbed the cell phone away. Gibas then ran to another apartment and called 911.

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