1/5/12 – Your grandfather may have walked for miles to get to school in the cold of winter. But today in Milwaukee, dozens of kids are making that journey by stealing cars. Police officer Shellee Lubus tells the Journal Sentinel that teens are walking through alleys, finding unattended cars that are warming up, and then driving them within a block or two of school where they leave them on the street. Car thefts jumped 43-percent in the last week in one police district on Milwaukee’s north side. Citywide, vehicle thefts are up 58-percent. There were 266 car thefts in the last three weeks — up from 168 in the previous three weeks. The most recent theft have occurred between 7-and-8 in the morning, or after school when drivers stop by a coffee shop or a pizza place with their engines running.
