Milwaukee Tool is one of the Midwest’s most recognizable manufacturers. Its bright red drills and saws built a reputation for toughness on job sites across the country. Heck, I grew up with my dad hauling his heavy metal boxes from project to project.
Now, prosecutors say a former employee figured out a way to turn that brand into his own side business…at the company’s expense.
According to court filings, Mathew Yang of Wauwatosa is accused of creating dozens of fake orders inside Milwaukee Tool’s system between March 2024 and March 2025
Investigators said Yang exploited his access to company software, generating orders that were shipped to addresses linked to him.
Before the transactions could be flagged, he allegedly deleted the records. This left behind truckloads of stolen tools with no payment trail.
The scheme unraveled when a delivery company questioned why a 9,000-pound shipment of tools was headed to an apartment building
Customer service checked the order number and found nothing in the system…