MADISON, Wis. — Prosecutors have accused a Wisconsin police officer of going on a burglary spree, stealing two vehicles and leading officers on a high-speed pursuit.
Prosecutors in Barron and Green Lake counties filed a host of charges against Waupun Police Lt. Bradley Young on Friday, including felony burglary, car theft and fleeing an officer.
Young remains in custody in Burnett County, where he was arrested last week. Online court records don't list an attorney for him. A message left at the Rice Lake public defender's office Tuesday wasn't immediately returned.
According to the Green Lake County criminal complaint, Young told an investigator he broke into a Berlin grocery store in June and stole $1,000. Employees told police someone had used an axe or other tool to crack the store's safe.
Young, 43, also told the agent he broke into a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Markeson last month but couldn't get anything out of the safe. Surveillance video from the store showed someone striking the safe multiple times with a splitting maul, an axe-like tool often used for splitting wood.
The burglar then tried to open the safe with a pry bar and other tools. He eventually gave up, raising his middle finger toward the camera, the Green Lake County complaint said.
On Aug. 5 someone broke into Walker's Kohlerville, a restaurant in the Town of Green Lake. A sheriff's deputy responding to an internal alarm at the restaurant spotted someone in a camouflage shirt, dark jeans and a mask matching Young's build fleeing from the building. The man escaped into a cornfield.
Deputies discovered someone had pulled the restaurant's ATM machine out of the floor and pried off the front cover but couldn't get at the cash inside. They also found Young's car near the scene; inside was a large amount of cash, a splitting maul and a pair of black gloves, the Green County complaint said.
That afternoon a Town of Green lake resident reported someone had stolen her red Toyota pick-up. According to the Barron County complaint, a sheriff's deputy in that county spotted the truck entering Rice Lake and a chase ensued, reaching speeds of more than 80 mph. The truck crashed into a ditch and the driver fled.
The next morning a man in Stanfold Township reported someone had stolen his son's Nisson Maxima, the complaint said.
Police found Young that evening at a cabin outside Spooner. Young realized he was surrounded, called 911 and surrendered, Barron County District Attorney Angela Beranek said in an interview.
Young told the investigator he ran from police after he was caught committing a burglary in Green Lake County, according to that county's complaint. He said he stole a red or maroon pickup truck, got into a chase, ran from deputies in Rice Lake and stole a second vehicle.
He also said he broke into a Waupun Piggly Wiggly and stole $3,000. Waupun Police Chief Scott Louden confirmed a break-in did occur at that store sometime late on Aug. 4 or early Aug. 5. He said Young is a suspect in the incident and his agency has turned the investigation over to state agents.
Young's motives remain unknown. Beranek said she had "no idea" why Young went on his alleged crime spree. Green Lake County District Attorney Kyle Sargent didn't immediately return a message.
"We ever had any indications this was going on," Louden said. "Our department and community is just in total shock this has occurred."
Young is set to be arraigned on the Barron County charges on Sept. 18.
