Man charged with stealing safes from Port house

A 35-year-old man was charged in Ozaukee County Circuit Court last week with stealing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, tools and guns from a Port Washington home where he lived last year.

Brian L. Guyette of Weyauwega, who has a criminal record spread across multiple  counties, faces one felony count of burglary and is charged as a repeat offender.

According to the criminal complaint, a woman and her son told police that on Nov. 18 they discovered two safes, which the son had last seen a month earlier, were missing from their home on Tower Drive.

The safes contained $8,000 in jewelry, including an engagement ring and two wedding bands, and $1,000 in cash. Also missing from the house were $700 in tools and two guns, the complaint states.

The woman and her son said Guyette was the boyfriend of the woman’s daughter and had lived with them between February and July 2018. 

The woman said she suspected Guyette had entered her home and stolen the safes and other items and texted Guyette’s mother, who responded by texting that she had seen a safe in the car of the woman’s daughter, according to the complaint. 

The woman’s daughter, who was in the Outagamie County jail at the time, said she had not driven her car since September and that Guyette had used the vehicle in October and November, the complaint states. She also told officers that Guyette had a key to her mother’s house and that he had sent her a letter telling her that a man named Mike and stolen the safes from the house, the complaint states.

Officers located the car and in it found the two stolen safes, which contained paperwork and a $1,000 money band from Port Washington State Bank.

At the time of the investigation, Guyette was in jail in Winnebago County, where he was charged in December with retail theft. He told officers that a man named Mike Rothe and another person had stolen the safes from the Port Washington home, according to the complaint.

But during an interview with investigators,  Rothe, who was also in the Winnebago County jail at the time, said the week before Guyette was arrested on Nov. 7, the two of them were driving to Milwaukee when Guyette decided to stop at the Tower Drive home in Port. Rothe said he remained in the car while Guyette used a key he had to enter the home and steal the safes and two shotguns, the complaint states.

Rothe is not charged in connection with the burglary. 

Guyette had told officers that he drove to Milwaukee frequently to buy drugs, according to the complaint.