Booze Bandits Bottled Up in Back of Store – and Busted

Two women were arrested for retail theft after they tried to sneak off with five, 1-liter bottles of liquor from CVS Pharmacy in Fox Point. 

When Fox Point police arrived on Dec. 18, the CVS Pharmacy manager said the woman in the security office with another police officer had concealed merchandise in her purse. But she told police she didn't take anything, it was the other person she was with, she was innocent. 

Police arrested her for theft and just before exiting the store, they spoke with a clerk who said while he was stocking shelves, he heard bottles clanking, according to the report.

When he went to see what the noise was, he saw the two women police had in custody walking away from him down the alcohol aisle, each with a purse that appeared to be full of something making a clanking noise, the report said. When the manager confronted the suspects and asked to see inside their bags, they ran towards the back of the store. When police retraced the route of the suspects, they found five bottles of alcohol out of place. In total, the suspects had the following on them:

• Three bottles of Skyy Vodka, 1.75 L, valued at $27.49 each, for a total of $82.47
• Johnnie Walker Red 1L, valued at $30.99
• Jose Cuervo Gold 1L, valued at $19.99

Back at the police station, one of the women supplied police with multiple different names, so they ran her fingerprints and discovered she had a felony warrant through the Department of Corrections for a probation violation, and a warrant in Sheboygan also for retail theft. She was cited again for retail theft.

The other woman was also arrested, but police discovered she had been interviewed in a previous CVS Pharmacy theft and while she wasn’t arrested, she had been banned from visiting CVS Pharmacy. She had also been convicted five times since April 2011 for retail theft. She was cited for trespassing and Fox Point police sought charges with Milwaukee County for Obstructing an Officer and Retail Theft with Habitual Criminality enhancer, however, the ADA said they wouldn’t charge her. 

Fox Point police issued her municipal citations for retail theft and obstructing an officer.