Burglar steals cheese and beer, sprays perfume, leaves cellphone behind

A 37-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday afternoon after she allegedly broke into an east side home, took beer and cheese out of the refrigerator and left her cellphone behind, Madison police said.

Madison police responded to the Mallory Circle residence around 4 p.m. after a homeowner reported a residential burglary, according to a release.

The homeowner called police after he came face-to-face with a woman who tried to hold his front door closed from the inside when he got home, police said. The man told police he had forgotten to lock his front door.

The man said he pushed his way into his home and found the woman with his laptop inside his backpack, according to the release. He took the backpack and told the woman to stay while he called police, which she did but proceeded to eat cheese from the man’s refrigerator.

When officers arrived, they were directed to a bike path and a wooded area where the woman had fled, police said. Officers could not only see her, but they could smell her as she had sprayed perfume taken from the man’s daughter’s bedroom.

The woman also had money, electronics and an unopened can of Guinness in her pocket, which was also reportedly taken from the man’s refrigerator, according to the release.

While officers were searching the woman, she asked about her cellphone, officials said. When police could not find it, they called her number and the cellphone started ringing inside a cabinet in the victim’s home.

The woman seemed pleased with the robbery’s outcome, and said several times to officers, “What does it take to get arrested around here?” according to the release. Police said the woman appeared to have been drinking.

The victim told police the woman not only stole his cheese and beer, but he thought she used his bathroom, and went into his daughter’s bedroom and sprayed a bunch of perfume, police said.

The woman was arrested on a tentative burglary charge.