Waukesha man arrested 'soaking wet' and charged with golf cart theft

Published on: 6/4/2013

A 39-year-old Waukesha man has been charged with allegedly stealing two golf carts after being found by police on May 28 hiding behind his house muddy, wet and missing a shoe.

Peter T. Sieger was charged on May 29 in Waukesha County Circuit Court with two felony counts of theft of movable property and one count of concealing stolen property. The proprietor of Midwest Golf Cars, the business allegedly wronged, estimated that the carts were worth approximately $5,200 each.

According to the criminal complaint:

A City of Waukesha police officer was dispatched at 2:30 a.m. on May 28 to Les Paul Parkway near West Avenue after another officer reported that a golf cart was overturned in a ditch on the side of the road.

The officer said that he spotted a white van driving north near Highway 59 and West avenue without its headlights on. He managed to get a license plate number off the vehicle and then went to investigate a man he spotted earlier driving a golf cart in the area. By the time he returned, the man was gone and the golf cart was in a ditch.

Although no theft report had yet been filed, police were able to determine that the cart was missing from Midwest Golf Cars, S40 W24181 Rockwood Way.

Police found an address for the white van the officer had spotted earlier driving without its headlights on and arrived at 919 Dixie Court, where they found a golf cart parked in the backyard. Midwest Golf Cars owner Gary Gorski said that the golf car was allegedly taken from his property.

Also found behind the house was Sieger, "soaking wet," muddy and missing a shoe. Sieger would later blow a .045 blood-alcohol level on a breath test administered by jail staff.

Police interviewed Sieger's daughter and wife. Sieger's wife, Deanna, told police that her husband had called her in the middle of the night asking her to drop him off in the area of Rockwood Way and Highway 164. She dropped him off, unhappy to do so, she said, and went back to bed.

Deanna said that Sieger called her again later in the night telling her to bring rope to the PDQ gas station. She went back and Sieger allegedly told her to turn off the headlights when she arrived. He got the rope and she left. She said she never saw a golf cart and Sieger had told her the one at their house was being stored for a friend.

Gorski reported two other golf carts had been stolen from his parking lot in early November, but Sieger has not been charged in relation to that incident.

Sieger could face more than 15 years in prison, $30,000 in fines, or both, if convicted.

A $500 cash bond was posted for Sieger's release on May 29 and he is expected to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on June 7.