Greendale Man Charged With Stealing Truckload of Beverages

A Greendale man is accused of stealing a truckload full of beverages from a business where he had been working for only a month.

Scott R. Collard II, 31, was charged Monday in Waukesha County Circuit Court with operating a motor vehicle without an owner’s consent and felony theft. If convicted, he faces up to 8 1/2 years in prison and $20,000 in fines.

According to the complaint:

General Beverage Sales in New Berlin reported at 1:50 p.m. Thursday that Collard, who worked for the company for about a month, took the beverage truck with $7,799 worth of merchandise at 6 a.m. Thursday for deliveries. However, after 9 a.m., he stopped making deliveries and wouldn’t answer his cell phone. The business employees were concerned about Collard’s safety and they couldn’t find the truck.

The next morning, they reported the vehicle as stolen because the truck had not returned and Collard’s Honda Accord remained in the lot.

Collard turned himself into a Milwaukee police station around 12 a.m. Sunday, telling an officer “I’m turning myself in, I’m wanted for taking the truck in New Berlin.”

Collard gave the officer the key to the truck and showed him where it was parked. The truck was searched and the merchandise was missing from the vehicle. Collard told a New Berlin police officer he was tired and had been awake for days.

“You won’t find any drugs on me,” Collard told police as they were searching him. “If I had any, I would have smoked it by now.”

Collard previously was convicted of misdemeanor theft in October 2011 in Waukesha County Circuit Court.