Woman in Theft Ring Nabbed in Elm Grove

The Secret Service is helping investigate a Florida ring of thieves who  broke into cars to steal identification later used to withdraw money from victims' bank funds, Brookfield police say.

The group stole $12,000 to $15,000 in Brookfield alone, and also stole funds in Fox Valley and Brown County, said Brookfield Police Capt. Jim Adlam. The Wisconsin thefts, he said, were not the first.

"They travel around the U.S. doing this," Adlam said.

So far, one member of the group has been arrested, in Elm Grove on July 14, after a dramatic high-speed chase. Charges and arrest warrants have been filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court against four other group members who also are from Florida.

Elizabeth A. Sturm, 21, of Davie, FL, appeared in court Monday and returns to court in September for a preliminary hearing on charges of attempting to elude police and identity theft.

Adlam said he did not know what the group did with the stolen funds.

According to a criminal complaint filed against Sturm:

A Green Bay woman reported her car was smashed and entered and her purse stolen in a parking lot near her work on June 27. Gone were her driver's license, check cards and credit cards.

A fraud alert was placed on the woman's M&I bank account after fraudulent checks were cashed from her account on July 13 and July 14.

About 5 p.m. July 14, a woman at the Elm Grove M&I bank branch, 900 Elm Grove Rd., provided the Green Bay woman's driver's license and bank card in the drive-through lane, seeking to withdraw funds.

The bank called police, who attempted to block the drive-through lane, but the female driver — later identified as Sturm — sped forward, nearly striking an Elm Grove police lieutenant's squad car.

She then went on a wild chase, driving over grass and up and down curbs, winding through Elm Grove and then Brookfield, driving through stop signs and forcing a passing SUV into a ditch. A wheel fell off Sturm's rented Buick from Florida and she then fled on foot, the parked Buick still running in a ditch near Sunny Slope Road and West Beechwood Avenue.

She pulled off a wig while trying to elude police, but eventually was tackled and arrested.

Sturm allegedly told police that she was with a group involved in thefts and others had been watching in a second car parked at the Elm Grove bank. They alerted her to the police car coming, but they got away.

Sturm said men in the group — whom she knew only by the nicknames of "Bang," "Big O," "Meeka," "C," and "Boot Daddy" — would smash vehicles to grab purses and wallets. Women in the group then would use the identification to withdraw funds from banks.

The women would get 10 percent of the proceeds; the men, 90 percent, Sturm said.

Sturm is being held on $100,000 bail in the Waukesha County Jail.