Milwaukee man burglarized 8 businesses over 8 days, prosecutors say
Octavius Maddox
MILWAUKEE - Octavius Maddox, 34, of Milwaukee, faces eight counts of burglary of a building or dwelling after prosecutors say he burglarized eight businesses, many of them on North Avenue, over eight days.
The first crime happened Sept. 29 at Advance Auto Parts on North Avenue, where surveillance showed a man prying open a boarded window with a screwdriver, taking two DieHard batteries and a battery charger.
That same day, at the nearby Popeyes restaurant on North Avenue, surveillance showed a man wearing the same clothes as the thief at Advance Auto broke the drive-thru window and crawled inside, unsuccessfully attempting to remove a register before moving to a small office. The register was found to have been pulled out from under a monitor. The lower portion of a safe was opened, and the contents were strewn about. A Samsung tablet was missing from the store.
The next day, police were contacted by the manager of Advance Auto on North Avenue who said the "same suspect was back." On Sept. 30, the thief took a shopping bag, red OPTIMA battery, an Advance Auto Parts creeper and a DieHard tool set, along with other items. The man was wearing the same clothing the thief in the other two burglaries wore.
Two days later, on Oct. 2, money was taken from registers at Taco Bell on Capitol Drive. The cash tills were found in the parking lot behind the nearby AutoZone store. Investigators learned the thief broke the drive-thru window at the restaurant with a brick and then crawled through, using a hammer to pry open two cash drawers and forcing an office door open.
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Three days later, on Oct. 5, surveillance showed a man breaking a window at Wendy's on North Avenue, where investigators found the drive-thru cash register had been damaged and the window on the entry door broken, along with a door latch. The thief tried to get into several registers and the manager's office.
That same day, two registers were removed and $186 was taken from each at Pete's Fruit Market on MLK Drive. Investigators found a shopping cart and pieces of the register in an alley nearby. A second register was found in a recycling cart. Surveillance showed the thief used a hatchet to enter the store and to remove the registers, placing them in a cart and leaving the store. A criminal complaint says a "large amount of spit" was found near where the registers were found, and that spit was swabbed for DNA.
Two days later, on Oct. 7, a window was broken at the Galst Food Market on Teutonia Avenue, where cigarettes and lottery tickets were taken. Investigators found several drawers open in a back office and lottery tickets strewn on the floor.
While police were investigating at Galst, a call came in about an active burglary at the nearby T-Mobile on Teutonia. The owner said he was watching it happen on his surveillance system. The thief tried to break in through the front door and then climbed over the gate behind the front door.
Officers arrested him at the T-Mobile store and found a large amount of $1 and $5 bills on him, along with a hammer and a backpack filled with lottery tickets and cigarettes taken from Galst. The owner said $100 worth of $1s and $5s was taken.
Prosecutors say the same man, Octavius Maddox, was caught on camera committing all of these crimes.