Off-Duty Lieutenant Arrests Liquor Store Burglar

Milwaukee Police Department
Office of Media and Communications

Jan. 15 - An observant off-duty Milwaukee Police Department lieutenant came across a group of burglars taking beer and other alcohol from a closed north side liquor store, leading to the arrest of one of the suspects.

District 7 Lieutenant Mark Wroblewski was on his way to work shortly before midnight on January 14 when we saw several suspects loading cases of beer and hard lemonade into two cars parked outside of a closed liquor store in the 2200 block of W. Fond du Lac Avenue. Realizing that the suspects had just burglarized the store, Lt. Wroblewski called for assistance and followed one of the cars as it fled the store. When the suspects realized that the police were following them they ran from the car. Because of Lt. Wroblewski’s keen observations skills a 29-year-old man was arrested, and items taken in the burglary were recovered. Investigators are using other information Lt. Wroblewski provided to identify the other suspects.

“Officers are never completely off-duty,” Lt. Wroblewski told reporters. “We live in this community and are always looking out for it, 24-7.”

Lt. Wroblewski was also off-duty when he took heroic actions on July 19, 2009, when he helped rescue young DJ Harper from a burning car on Milwaukee’s south side. Lt. Wroblewski rushed to the scene when he saw smoke in his neighborhood and used two fire extinguishers kept in his car to control the flames while others were able to free DJ from the burning vehicle.