Chronic shoplifters arrested at Macy's

Two people with extensive records were nabbed for retail thefts at the Macy's store at Mayfair Mall on Saturday afternoon.

According to Wauwatosa police:

The first incident occurred at 12:44 p.m., when a 57-year-old Milwaukee woman stuffed eight shirts into a shopping bag and tried to leave the store.

She made it sound like it was her first such arrest and said she took the goods because she lost her manufacturing job in March. She said she needed nice clothing for job interviews.

But a quick background check showed she had 13 prior retail thefts in Wisconsin, 25 in Florida and three in North Carolina.

She also told officers she could not afford to pay for the clothing, but she had cash and a debit card available to pay bail.

Later that afternoon, at 4:55 p.m., a 61-year-old Milwaukee man took shopping bags from his pockets and filled them with $294 in merchandise, then walked out of the store.

He was arrested for retail theft and bail-jumping, because he was supposed to appear in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Wednesday on his last arrest. His record showed 29 prior retail theft arrests.

The man said he couldn't find a job, so he planned to sell the stolen merchandise on the street. He is sitting in Milwaukee County Jail.