Police Reports: Going to Great Lengths for Drugs

Don't even ask where that blood came from.

At 4:16 p.m. Feb. 2, a 41-year-old Milwaukee man was taken into custody for attempting to obtain prescription medication by fraud and obstructing an officer after he tried to get narcotics at Elmbrook Memorial Hospital, 19333 W. North Ave.

The man came in with fake ID, wanting narcotic medicine for pain, he said. But he was uncooperative about being examined, and all his vital signs were normal.

A doctor who had seen the man before warned that he was probably scamming, and police were called. Among other things, they found that the suspect had brought in a syringe of blood to spray on himself to make it look like he had an injury.

The doctor who recognized him said that on an earlier occasion the man had claimed he was bringing up blood with his stomach contents — and he'd brought in a bag of evidence to prove it.

The doctor, showing his forensic skill, noted that the blood was still bright red and would not have appeared so had it gone where the suspect said it had been.

Police also noted that the actual owner of the false ID the suspect tried to use was wanted on warrants and didn’t look anything like him.

In other incidents:

Feb. 1

At 7:30 a.m., a resident of the 19000 block of Hi View Drive reported that some time since 12:15 a.m. his Dodge Caravan was stolen out of his driveway. He said the van was locked and all keys were in the house, accounted for. It turned out the van had been repossessed by CarMax.

At 3:05 p.m., police were called to Best Buy, 19555 Blue Mound Rd., on a report that a man and woman had just made off with a laptop computer and two tablets. Police could not locate the suspects.

At 5:21 p.m., a 20-year-old Wauwatosa woman was arrested for theft from JCPenney at Brookfield Square after she tried to walk out with $180 worth of clothing. She had seven items stuffed in her backpack.

Feb. 2

At 6:57 a.m., a snowplow operator called police to report that overnight someone had stolen two batteries out of the rearloader he uses to plow the lot at The Majestic, 770 Springdale Rd.

Feb. 4

At 5:09 p.m., a manager at North Face in Brookfield Square reported that a man and woman with a toddler and carrying a car seat had just left with stolen merchandise. Employees had not seen them do anything suspicious but found an empty hanger just after they left. Video showed that the woman concealed a black cardigan worth $75 in the car seat. They could not be found.

Feb. 5

A resident of the 2400 block of Maple Hill Lane reported that she had received an email “from the FBI” informing her that her computer had been locked because of illegal activities. It went on to say that to unlock her computer she would have to go to a Walmart store and purchase a Green Dot money card and then contact the sender with the number. Sure enough, her computer did lock up. Police informed her that the message was not from the FBI and was a scam, that her computer had a virus from the sender that locked it, and that she should contact IC3.gov and report the incident. The woman did not give any money to the sender.

At 3:28 p.m., the branch manager of Waukesha Bank, 19265 W. Capitol Dr., reported that nine fraudulent checks had been passed, totaling about $6,000. There are nine suspects, all recorded on video.

At 4:41 p.m., an 18-year-old Brookfield man was arrested for theft after the principal of Brookfield East High School reported that multiple cell phones had been stolen during the day from student lockers. Six iPhones were found in his possession, five of six cases were found in the woods, and one of five SIM cards from the phones was found on Sunny View Drive.

Feb. 6

At 8:55 a.m., the building manager of Brookfield East High School called police to report that some time the day before or overnight someone had done $400 to $500 worth of damage to a fire door.