Posted on 09/03/2015 7:53:09 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
After an early morning brush with crime, a Wauwatosa city official is giving thanks to the officers who halted a potentially dangerous situation.
Shortly after 1:30 a.m. Sept. 1, Alderman John Dubinski awoke to strange noises coming from outside his home in the 7900 block of Milwaukee Avenue.
Dubinski said he looked out his window to see five individuals outside on his driveway, near his family's two vans. Suspects were inside each of the family's vehicles, two females were standing in the driveway "acting as lookouts" and a third was "holding a handgun in the ready position," Dubinski said.
"He was positioned to the point where he could watch the street and the front door of the house," said Dubinski of the individual with the gun, who noted the individuals seemed "too relaxed" for the circumstances.
"I armed myself to protect my family, not wanting to be on the short end of five of them and one of me," Dubinski said. "As soon as I saw what was going on, I grabbed my cellphone and called dispatch."
Dubinski retired as a detective from the Wauwatosa Police Department in December 2010 after more than 31 years of service.
Dubinski said officers arrived on scene "within one minute" of placing the 911 call. When the first police squad car arrived, two females began to walk away and were immediately arrested, he said.
The three remaining individuals ran between homes in the area, fleeing the scene.
More police officers arrived on scene — including a K-9 unit from the Milwaukee County Sheriff's office — and the three male suspects were found hiding in a nearby vehicle, said Lt. Brian Zalewski of the Wauwatosa Police Department.
Dubinski said he set up flood lights to help officers who were searching behind his house and also to deter the suspects from returning.
The entire ordeal wrapped up just before sunrise, around 5 a.m., Dubinski said.
Zalewski of the Wauwatosa Police Department said the situation was concerning" given the ages of the individuals involved. Two females ages 14 and 17 and three males ages 12, 15 and 16 were all arrested and should expect charges related to the attempted vehicle theft, Zalewski said.
Additionally, the 15- and 16-year-olds were arrested for possession of a dangerous weapon by an individual under age 18 related to a 9-millimeter handgun and 14 rounds of ammunition that were found.
The 16-year-old juvenile was also arrested for possession of controlled substance-marijuana, Zalewski said.
All of the juveniles are residents of Milwaukee, he said.
"It's hard to say why at 1:30 in the morning all of these juveniles are out without parental supervision, presumably on a school night," Zalewski said. "Presumably on what would be hours before they're supposed to be in the classroom, they're out attempting to steal vehicles."
Later that morning, around 6:20 a.m., a resident in the 1700 block of North 83rd Street called police to report an unknown vehicle that was blocking their driveway.
The vehicle turned out to be a stolen Dodge minivan from Milwaukee that appears to be related to the incident at Dubinski's home, Zalewski said.
Dubinski said he is fortunate that no one was injured in the incident, but his vehicles have damage to the steering columns and are likely to be expensive to repair.
One of the family's vans has a lift and is used to transport Dubinski's daughter, who has a disability.
Early models of Dodge and Chrysler Caravans — the latter of which Dubinski drives — are seen as easy targets for car thieves as many lack an electric ignition identification.
Dubinski said there were a lot of take-away lessons from the incident
"People should be encouraged to take a closer look at their security, make sure you lock your car every night," he said. He praised the work of the police department.
The damaged steering column on one of John Dubinski's vans. Dubinski, a retired Wauwatosa detective and city alderman, spotted five young Milwaukee residents attempting to steal his vans and called police, who arrested all five of them. Photo By Submitted
Note to all those on my list who do not live in Wisconsin: Wauwatosa is NOT Milwaukee. It is adjacent to Milwaukee, although it lies in Milwaukee County (Sheriff David Clarke’s jurisdiction) which is why this fellow got such quick police response and why the officers went after the suspects. Milwaukee City has a policy where they do not chase crooks and certainly not juveniles which is the reason behind some of the harsh comments following this article at the source. Wauwatosa is the home of Scott Walker when he’s not in residence in Madison at the Governor’s house.
Unfortunately, the judges will let these kids go with only a warning.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
It is interesting that Wauwatosa, is noted as a place of interest, related to the Fox Lake IL murder.
Hmmmmm.
Probably one of the most under reported stories in Wauwatosa is the number of home break ins from the fine youth of Milwaukee. Milwaukee is home to many feral youth who see Tosa as a cookie jar of things to take from whitey.
“”It’s hard to say why at 1:30 in the morning all of these juveniles are out without parental supervision, presumably on a school night,” Zalewski said. “Presumably on what would be hours before they’re supposed to be in the classroom, they’re out attempting to steal vehicles.””
What year is this guy living in?
We have the same problem in Mequon — quite a distance from Milwaukee, but that doesn’t deter the criminals.
What is a 12-year-old doing out at 1:30 am on a school night?
When we were burglarized by a gang of Milwaukee teens and our police force found and arrested them, the goods from 8 burglaries was found under one of their beds — that is, the goods that had not been disposed of. As we went down to the PD to identify our things (including guns and ammo) I expressed surprise that their mothers hadn’t discovered the loot when cleaning under the beds.
The police office rolled his eyes at me and said, “Mrs. XXX, these mothers never cleaned under ANYTHING.”
All of the members of this gang (which was white) were from broken homes, and their moms were working several jobs to keep roofs over their heads. The interesting point is that the police (which had gone undercover at their high school) caught them when one of the members broke apart from the others. It turned out, he was about to turn 18 and he knew that the penalties would be much harsher for his crimes, so he quit the gang.
Who says that the juvenile system of justice is not an incentive? These kids knew exactly what they were doing and they all got off.
The current one.
He is a retired LEO and KNOWS better than to allow any opening to the soon to be appointed defense lawyers. Say nothing that would show even a hint of prejudice or bias towards presumed-to-be-innocents!
When was this? We had a couple of burglaries in Grafton a few weeks back, got a laptop and golf clubs out of a neighbor's car parked in their driveway. I've been spending my evenings ever since, sitting on the porch with the dogs, keeping an eye out.
If it was the same gang, it'd be nice to know they'd gotten busted.
I live near 68th and Wells. Last week the cops where combing the backyards because some feral Milwaukee youths where cutting the screens of windows and climbing in the house to burglar, they caught them , of course all under 18. Last month a single gal on the block came home from work early and startled the fine Milwaukee youths who broke down her french doors, they stole her microwave. Scarred the beJesus out of her of course. Her dog barked but did not deter this fine youths from Milwaukee.
I am kind of surprise my house has never been hit, unless they are casing the area and don’t want to mess with me.
“The interesting point is that the police (which had gone undercover at their high school) caught them when one of the members broke apart from the others. It turned out, he was about to turn 18 and he knew that the penalties would be much harsher for his crimes, so he quit the gang.”
Another example of the consequences of the “catch and release” reform of the juvenile justice system over the past 50 years.
According to the article, he was stealing cars.
Maybe you meant to ask, "Why is a 12-year-old out at 1:30 am on a school night?" The simple answer is that these kids are raised a little bit differently than our kids are.
Sorry. My burglary was back in 1988. The same gang from Vincent HS did 8 burglaries out here that the police could pin on them. Their MO was to ditch school on Friday mornings and to hit the suburbs. They would locate a house in the suburbs that looked empty and had hidden access to the back for a car. Then they would drive up to the front and ring the doorbell. If there was no answer, they would drive around back so that their car was hidden and look for a door to break in.
The idiots turned ON my burglar alarm, which was a stand alone affair at the time with a loud horn attached. They terrified my Golden Retriever who was still shaking when I got home from a neighborhood “coffee”. They grabbed what they could, which included my husband’s hunting rifles which had been left out on a bed in a spare room to dry out after a hunting trip. They stole the rifes and a whole supply of shotgun shells and removed and took the key to the burglar alarm.
Their downfall was the fact that they drove on my back lawn and parked by the basement door. The ground was not quite frozen, so the police were able to recover tire prints. They determined that the car was an older American model with 4 non-matching tires.
Some weeks later, a lady in Saukville answered her door on a Friday morning and surprised the kids who really did not have a good excuse for ringing her doorbell. She copied down their license number and the police located the car — an older model ford — in Milwaukee. It belonged to the mother of one of the gang members. They took a picture and showed it to the lady in Saukvile who didn’t think it was the right car (so much for eyewitness testimony).
One of our police officers (who looked very young) — Mario Valdez — went under cover at Vincent High and got friendly with this group of kids who were notorious for skipping school on Friday mornings. He noticed that one of them had brokien away from the others and moved in and got a confession. The Mequon PD worked so hard on it because it involved guns.
Mario — my hero. We got all of our stuff back — even some stuff we didn’t realize was missing. My neighbors were not so lucky. They stole jewelry there and claimed that they “threw it out of the window of the car into some farmer’s field.” I’d take a wager that it was hanging around the neck of some GF or Mom. The burglary was just before Christmas.
Mario is now head of Campus Security at Concordia. I asked him if that was easy duty, compared to the day to day grind of the Mequon PD. He laughed and said that Concordia has all the same problems — substance abuse, theft, rape, etc.
All those back alleys in Milwaukee! Used to cruise them just for fun.
Long ago I was burglarized by two girls who were seen leaving the area. I was still discovering things that were missing years later.
Great story! Thank you for sharing. One of these days, we Ozaukee-ites need to get together for a beer or something.
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