Alleged purse thief nabbed after walking in front of Tosa squad car

Security photos led to a man's arrest three days after he allegedly took a purse from a woman shopping at Pick 'n Save, 6950 W. State St., at 1:25 p.m. Oct. 2.

According to the Wauwatosa police report:

An officer was patrolling in the 6100 block of Vliet Street at 5:50 p.m. Oct. 5 when he saw a familiar-looking man walk in front of his squad car. The man was wearing a blue baseball hat and a blue-striped polo shirt.

The officer had been looking through Pick 'n Save security photos of a suspected thief two hours earlier. The man in the photos was wearing a blue baseball hat and blue-striped polo shirt.

The man was caught after scrambling onto a bus. He admitted to taking the purse and was found with a a syringe, glass pipe and tourniquet in his possession.

He took officers to where he had ditched the woman's purse. He said he rifled through the purse after running to Hart Park with it.

The purse was returned to the woman. The man was wanted on warrants for probation violation, drug possession and retail theft.