‘It just makes you weary:’ Man says teens used shoveling snow as a ruse to break into home
By Ellie Nakamoto-White
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RIVERWEST, Wisconsin (WDJT) — It’s often encouraged to help your neighbor out during a snowstorm like yesterday’s — maybe by shoveling a driveway or sidewalk.
But a Riverwest man is claiming a group of teens used that excuse as a cover before they broke into his home.
Alex Bender said he was at work Wednesday afternoon, when he received a notification on his phone that his garage door was closing.
“I thought that was odd,” Bender recalled.
So, he decided to reach out to his friend who lives next door by the intersection of Humboldt and Meinecke.
“He calls me and says he saw footprints in the snow and in my driveway leading up to the garage and he thought that was weird, so he was going to check it out,” Bender said.
However, 10 minutes later, around 1:45 p.m., Bender said his friend called back with news he never expected to hear.
“He’s kind of frantic on the phone saying that he just ran in on three people in my house,” Bender said, adding that the group immediately took off outside.
“My PC, they took my PlayStation, they took a watch, they took some jewelry, shoes,” Bender said.
So, he decided to post on a Riverwest Neighborhood Facebook page, where he promptly received several messages from others in the group, including doorbell camera footage showing teens who matched his neighbor’s description holding snow shovels.
“It really seemed like they were casing houses and using that as kind of like a front,” Bender said, noting that another neighbor had informed him the teens had asked about snow shoveling before they went by his home.
Now, he’s warning others to stay vigilant.
“I don’t want people to see a kid with a shovel and think that this is somebody that’s got mal intent because that’s not the case like 99% of the time,” Bender said. “It’s just like people like this that are kind of ruining it, it seems like for everyone and it just makes you weary.”
Bender said he has filed a police report and is awaiting next steps.
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