Milwaukee bar burglaries, 'lookout' charged: complaint

MILWAUKEE - A Milwaukee woman is charged in connection to the burglaries of three different business over the course of three days last week.

Prosecutors said 19-year-old Shanaee McFarland admitted she was a "lookout" during the burglaries, which involved two other people.  

McFarland is charged with three counts of burglary of a building/dwelling (as a party to a crime). She made her initial court appearance on Oct. 24 and received a $5,000 signature bond.

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40th and Clybourn | Oct. 17

A criminal complaint states a business owner told police the front door's window had been broken and anywhere from $800 to $1,500 was taken from the cash register. Several bottles of alcohol were also broken, along with a liquor display valued at roughly $1,000. 

Investigators watched video that showed two people use pieces of broken curb to smash the window, per the complaint. After the window was smashed, investigators saw three people running.

Pierce and Clarke | Oct. 18

The complaint states a bar was broken into, a brick used to smash the front door window, and roughly $400 was taken. FOX6 News spoke to the owner of the business, Club 99, who said the money was taken from the register. The bar did not have surveillance, but Ortiz told FOX6 he planned to install cameras.

Damage at Club 99 in Riverwest

Hubbard and Vine | Oct. 19

Police were called to the area for a "subject with a weapon complaint," prosecutors said. When officers got there, they found a broken window at the front of a restaurant and cables that had been "pulled away from the wall which appeared to have been connected to what was taken."

Detectives later learned that a cash drawer containing $300 was stolen, per the complaint. Security footage from the business showed two people breaking a window and one of them going inside and taking the cash drawer. The two then ran off.

In custody

Police arrested McFarland the night of Oct. 19, per the complaint, for being in a car that was reported stolen. While speaking to police, prosecutors said McFarland admitted to her involvement in each of the three burglaries. 

McFarland said she was there with two other people who burglarized the business at 40th and Clybourn, the complaint states. She said all three of them "picked up some rocks and broke out the window," but denied having taken anything. The next day, she said the same two people picked her up in the stolen vehicle that she was later driving when arrested.

According to the complaint, McFarland said she was the "lookout" at the Pierce and Clarke burglary that day and the burglary the following day near Hubbard and Vine. She said it was the other two people who broke into those businesses.