Some at the Greenfield Police Department are calling him a package thief accused of stealing nearly 200 gifts the “Grinch.”
Greenfield police have a man in custody and a huge pile of children’s toys, medical devices like diabetic pumps, and piles of Christmas gifts and other goods in their evidence room at the police department.
Investigators said they believe the same 31-year-old man stole at least 175 items from packages on people’s front porches.
In one case from last Thursday, he’s seen taking three packages worth hundreds of dollars from a Greenfield home. The homeowner’s doorbell surveillance system caught him on camera.
It’s unclear how long he’s been committing the crimes. Police said the victims are from all over Milwaukee County.
Mike Lisowski is one of them. He had packages with WiFi light switches inside stolen from his porch last Wednesday.
“It was a Christmas present for my son,” said Lisowski.
“He would have ruined a little bit of Christmas for somebody,” he continued.
Officers tracked him down because a victim’s doorbell camera captured his black Cadillac SUV.
Two day’s ago, Sgt. Robert Austin pulled over that vehicle in Greenfield in the 3900 block of South 27th Street for not having headlights on.
“There was an Amazon box in the rear of the vehicle that was full of seemingly new and random merchandise,” said Austin.
“There was a large amount of merchandise found in his apartment and there were some shipping labels on a couple of the boxes,” he said.
Lisowski was able to recover his stolen gifts. Police are trying to reunite the rest of the goods with the right owners.
Included in the stolen goods, is a doorbell home security camera. It’s the same brand the homeowner used that led to the thief’s arrest.
Police are not releasing the thief’s name yet and charges are pending. At the time of his arrest, police said he was on probation for receiving stolen goods.
“A lot of people around here at the Greenfield Police Department have thrown around the 'Grinch' word, which might be appropriate. I’m just happy he’s not going to be stealing anymore Christmas packages,” said Austin.
