Waukesha County Courthouse
BROOKFIELD, Wis. - Brookfield police are investigating a former Milwaukee Tool employee for the theft of more than $1 million worth of tools, according to documents filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court.
FOX6 News is not naming the employee, identified in court filings as a 31-year-old man, because he has not been charged with a crime at this time.
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9,000 pounds of tools
What they're saying:
Brookfield police received a theft complaint from Milwaukee Tool in April. Documents said the company provided information that a former employee "manipulated Milwaukee Tool's ordering systems and ordered a large quantity of tools without rendering any payment to the company."
Milwaukee Tool's customer service center received a call from a freight shipping company in March that raised attention, according to court filings. The shipping company called to confirm the delivery address for a shipment of approximately 9,000 pounds of Milwaukee Tools to a Wauwatosa apartment complex.
Court documents said the address at the apartment complex was the former employee's listed address with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. When customer service could not find the order in the system, it prompted Milwaukee Tool's investigation.
Orders total more than $1.4M
Dig deeper:
The employee worked in Milwaukee Tool's customer supply chain before moving to IT, court filings said, "which gave him intimate knowledge of the ordering system." Milwaukee Tool's investigation advised police that the employee "manipulated the order system to create orders that would be fulfilled and prepared by the warehouse for shipping." The employee would then delete the order information before payment processing – "thus, no payment was rendered for the orders."
Court documents said the employee created and deleted approximately 115 orders from late March 2024 to late March 2025. The vast majority of orders, totaling over $710,000, were placed in March 2025.
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Of the 115 orders, court filings said 109 shipments were delivered. Milwaukee Tool was able to cancel and recover six shipments. The orders totaled more than $1.4 million but, with what Milwaukee Tool was able to cancel and recoup, the total loss was estimated at just over $1 million.
Milwaukee Tool also advised law enforcement that it found a spreadsheet on the former employee's company laptop titled "selling list," according to court documents. It had a breakdown of information like "retail cost" and "selling price." That led investigators to believe the employee was likely reselling tools "in large volume," and he would have had direct access to and contact with Milwaukee Tool's "legitimate customer base."
The Source: FOX6 News reviewed documents filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court.