Fresh Loaf

“Take your shotgun out of the corner, or from under the bed, and make it accessible!”

Coming soon: Lil’ Back Up!  Easily adaptable to bunk beds, cribs — even racecar beds!  It’s a blast!

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That’s how bad the economy is!

According to the AJC:

Smash-and-grab burglars struck a Buckhead clothing store before daybreak Friday.

The burglars broke out a window at the T.J. Maxx store on the Buckhead Loop shortly after 4 a.m., Atlanta police spokesman Eric Schwartz said.

Schwartz said the store manager told investigators that the suspects stole 30 pair of blue jeans and 50 Polo shirts.

Geez, smash-and-grabbers. You could at least leave the affordable designer jeans alone. Thanks alot.

(Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

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Blue Genes, the clothing boutique in the Around Lenox shopping center that has been broken in to seven times in the past eight years, might be getting a run for its money as the most burgled outpost along Lenox Road.

This morning, police began investigating yet another such burglary, this time at the Macy’s in Lenox Square Mall, where approximately 80 pairs of blue jeans worth an estimated $10,000 were stolen. Burglars found their way in after smashing a plate glass window at the front of the store.

These two victims are, of course, far from alone. Atlanta recently ranked second in a survey of the nation’s most dangerous cities, with property crimes increasing by 7.6 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year. And as the AJC noted, these recent break-ins don’t even set these two stores apart on their own block:

(more…)

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From an AJC story about an uptick in burglaries near Tech’s campus:

More police will hit the streets to help combat a spike in crime targeting Georgia Tech students, officials said.

Georgia Tech and Atlanta Police have scheduled a press conference for 3 p.m. today to announce the steps they are taking to stop the crime spike.

Funny, when a bartender was murdered in January at his place of work on Memorial Drive — following a string of burglaries and robberies in the area — I don’t remember a press conference being called by police. (Only after detectives caught one of the bartender’s killers did the Atlanta Police Department hold a press conference.) Nor was there the promise of more patrol officers working the street.

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Number of reported burglaries, larcenies and automobile thefts in Atlanta in 2008: 38,978

Percentage increase in Atlanta property crimes in 2008, compared to the previous year: 7.6

Percentage that property crime decreased across the country in 2008: 1.6

Number of times a Poncey-Highland gym was broken into in the first weeks of June: 5

Number of intown bars hit in one night in May by thieves apparently looking for flat-screen TVs: 4

Number of times a Midtown clothing boutique was hit by “smash-and-grab” burglars in May: 2

Total number of burglaries, larcenies and thefts that occurred in Atlanta during the first three months of 2009 (most recent statistics): 7,980

Number of same crimes that occurred during the first three months of 2008: 8,804

Atlanta’s rank in a disputed survey of the nation’s most dangerous cities: 2

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Police Department, FBI Annual Crime Statistics, Real Clear Politics

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Call girls need peace, too

The AJC reports that the APD charged two young ladies with soliciting sex on one of Buckhead’s ritzier blocks. Here’s the story:

Police arrested two women last week in an undercover sting prompted by complaints that patrons at the W Hotel in Buckhead were being solicited for illegal sex acts.
Caprice Evan, 19, of DeKalb, and Brandi Moody, 18, of Atlanta, were arrested March 11 on charges of escorting without a permit, a misdemeanor, according to an Atlanta police report.

Hey, at least they weren’t panhandling. Now, the charge suggests the suspects would’ve been in the clear if they’d gotten their escort permits. Interesting… Here’s more:

(more…)

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Rubi Cuautle, at a vigil for slain bartender John Henderson

1. Vigil for murdered Atlanta bartender (Posts about the huge crowd that attended the vigil and the memorial fund set up for victim John Henderson speak to the community’s mobilization after the tragedy.)

2. Don’t Panic: Why is Israel bombing Gaza? (Violence in the Middle East — second in popularity only to violence at home.)

3. Intowners claim crime has become more brazen (Ironically, this post about a perceived uptick in crime was published a few hours before news broke of Henderson’s death.)

4. Lisa Borders’ home burglarized (City Council prez loses flat-screen to thieves — hours after attending a speech in which the mayor claimed crime was down)

5. ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ star going to Ga. Supreme Court (In lighter — but still sociologically disturbing — news, Sheree argues her divorce alimony to the state’s highest court.)

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CBS 46 (”We ask the tough questions! Eat that, liars!”) reports Atlanta City Council President Lisa Border’s Southwest Atlanta home  was burglarized a few hours after Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Monday speech in which she said crime in the city had gone down. The robbers, who kicked in Borders’ front door, made off with a 26″ flat-screen television. (Click the link above to view the report.)

Another tip of the hat to Grayson for sending the link.

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RATTLED: Little Five Points resident Kyle Keyser says his Dec. 17 mugging reflects how brazen Atlanta crime has become.

On Dec. 17, local video producer and blogger Kyle Keyser stopped at the Pizza Hut on North Avenue to pick up a late dinner for his roommate’s boss. Five men stood outside the pizza joint. One asked Keyser if he’d buy him some food. Keyser, sympathetic to the man’s hunger, said sure.

But the restaurant was closed, and as Keyser returned to his car, the five men surrounded him and pushed him against a nearby vehicle. One shoved a gun to his neck. They demanded money. Keyser said he didn’t have any but handed over his ATM card.

The men took Keyser’s cell phone and wallet and ordered him to lie on the ground. One suspect, pistol in hand, took aim.

“I’m gonna shoot him,” Keyser recalls the suspect saying. “I’m gonna shoot this motherfucker.”

“Don’t shoot him,” pleaded the guy who Keyser had offered to buy food.

“Naw,” the gunman said, “I’m gonna shoot him in the leg.”

Keyser, face down on the pavement, braced himself for a bullet. Instead, he saw five pairs of sneakers walk off. He sensed he had an exit, jumped in his car, and sped toward Midtown to call the police. He says bank receipts show the suspects purchased food with his card at a gas station a block away.

“OK, people get mugged and asked for money,” says Keyser, whose house has been broken into twice. “There’s a certain amount of crime that you associate with living in the city. It’s not forgivable, but it’s understood. You know it’s going to happen. What concerns me now is the spike in violent crime.”

Read the rest of this story.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Burglars, beware. Big Brother — or at least a fancy surveillance system — is watching.

Atlantans are fighting back against break-ins by publicizing videos of the culprits. The latest: A brief snippet of a guy who attempted to break into an Adair Park home using two shovels. The man is believed to be responsible for a dozen burglaries in the neighborhood.

Last month, homeowners in Grant Park and East Atlanta caught their break-ins on camera. Two days after the videos went viral, six suspects believed to be involved in at least one of the burglaries were arrested — and police recovered eight stolen flat-screen televisions, three laptop computers and several digital cameras.

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Atlanta’s 11 Least Influential People is Creative Loafing’s annual tribute to the Joe and Josephine Averages of the world who try, but don’t necessarily succeed. Winners 11 through six will be revealed, one-per-day, until Wednesday, November 12, when the 11 Least Influential issue hits newsstands.

Editor’s note: This winner’s name/photo has been withheld out of respect for her safety.

In September, a local artist returned from a mid-afternoon visit to the gym to find her Southwest Atlanta home had been burglarized.

“I didn’t realize anything was wrong until I sat down at my computer and saw it wasn’t there,” she says. “They took all my computers, cameras, my TV, jewelry, pretty much what they could grab.”

A freelance graphic designer who works from home, the woman’s stolen computers contained years of her work.

“It’s strange to think that someone bought my life for $20 on the street,” she said.

Though the burglary happened in the middle of the day on a busy street, and the thieves used her giant, green “herby curby” garbage bin to wheel away her possessions, no one came forward to identify suspects to police.

She came away with the incident with a sense of foreboding.

“I just knew I was gonna get broken into again,” she says. “They already know what I have and they knew I was going to replace it.”

She was right.

Last week, her house was burglarized a second time. Her alarm system scared the assailants away, but not before they managed to haul her TV through a window and into some bushes outside her house.

Because her schedule is irregular, the woman believes the person(s) breaking into her house live(s) nearby, attacking her home when they see her leave the house.

She can only speculate, however, because Atlanta Police did not take fingerprints after the burglaries — as is department procedure.

“Me getting broken into is not that severe,” she says. According to Atlanta Police, residential burglary was up 23 percent citywide during the first half of the year — and 40 percent in the police precinct where the woman lives.

She expects to be burglarized again any day.

“I’m constantly waiting for the [alarm company to call].” (more…)

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Jeff Johnson has a thing or two to say to the person who penned and circulated a vitriolic, idiotic letter that threatened African-Americans who live in Kirkwood.

Johnson, a yearlong Kirkwood resident and long-time Georgian, says the key to “saving” his neighborhood is to band together against displays of hate — and against the criminals whose acts instill that hate. He describes himself to the letter-writer as “the tall guy walking down the street headed to the park with my mixed kids. Don’t Shoot.”

Dear Angry Kirkwood Vigilante:

I hope you’re not as racist as you sound and just really angry over something that has touched you personally.

You mentioned crackheads, so let’s speak on drug epidemics. If you were in the suburbs, you would quite possibly have the same issue, only with non-African-American meth-heads. On to our specific issue here in Kirkwood: To everyone that bought a pricey house, and even those that brought a broke-down fixer-upper, my condolences. I would be upset too if I discovered the indigenous crackhead population after the purchase. I personally have grown up with the crack problem and have lost much more than my HD and Surround Sound, so allow me to offer these tips:

(more…)

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The Internets can be an effective crime-fighting tool for those who can’t wait for John Walsh to call.

On Monday, Dan and Alyssa Kopp of Grant Park were victims of a break-in that cost them their flat-screen TV, a laptop and a digital camera. However, their home security camera had caught the entire burglary on video, showing the three thieves and their SUV in high definition.

They posted the video to YouTube on Tuesday, alerted some friends and within a few hours they’d received calls from us, the AJC and several TV news crews. By 5 p.m., the video of the smash-and-grab burglary had been watched by more than 5,000 people, some of whom posted tips.

On Thursday, according to the AJC, police acting on one such tip raided a house in South DeKalb, where they found eight stolen flat-screen televisions, three laptop computers and several digital cameras. Six suspects, all in their 20s, were arrested.

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Sophia disappeared after a burglary.

Sophia, the five-year-old pit bull that disappeared after a break-in at her East Lake home, was found late last night several miles away in a city park.

Her owners, Johnny and Krista Kral, say she’s in good spirits after her four-day disappearance. The Krals had suspected that Sophia was taken during the burglary — and feared she’d be sold into dog-fighting because of her breed.

According to Krista Kral:

She was so excited to be back with us. Her tail would not stop wagging, even while she was laying down almost asleep. She was really exhausted, ate an entire bowl of food in a matter of seconds, and smelled like a sewer rat!

She looks good overall. She has a bunch of scratches on her belly, most likely from brush, some bug bites, and some serious callouses on her paws, but nothing major. She has her own bed since she takes up so much room, but last night we couldn’t stand to not hold her. We gave her a good scrub-down and cuddled with her all night.

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A pit bull named Sophia who disappeared during a burglary last Thursday and might have been stolen still hasn’t turned up. Her owners, Johnny and Krista Kral, are now offering $1,000 — up from the $500 we reported last week — for the return of their beloved pet.

The Krals fear that Sophia may have been taken and sold into dog-fighting, despite the fact that her docile, submissive nature would make her useless in the ring.

Atlanta’s 11 Alive and WSBTV both aired stories last night about Sophia’s disappearance.

Here are are the stats on Sophia: black and white with black eyeliner, one black ear and white, and a white tip at the end of her tail; medium-sized (about 60 pounds); very sweet but very timid and will probably not come to you if called; extra timid around men and will not bite.

Sophia might be in the vicinity of the couple’s home, located just south of Glenwood Avenue and the East Lake Golf Club near the corner of Barberrie Lane and Parker Avenue. But she might not.

The Krals ask that you please be on the lookout for Sophia and call 404-784-2469 or 404-451-1460 if you see her or have any leads as to where she is.

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Sophia disappeared after her home was burglarized

A couple whose East Lake home was burglarized yesterday lost far more than their flat-screen TV and Xbox. Their five-year-old dog also disappeared.

They fear that the dog might have been taken during the burglary, perhaps because of her breed. Sophia is a pit bull/American Bulldog mix.

Krista and Johnny Kral estimate that the burglary took place around 3 p.m., when they were both at work. The door to their home — located just south of Memorial Drive near the East Lake Golf Club — was kicked in.

Here are are the stats on Sophia: black and white with black eyeliner and a white tip at the end of her tail, medium-sized (about 60 pounds), very sweet but very timid and will probably not come to you if called, extra timid around men and will not bite.

The Krals ask that you please be on the lookout for Sophia and are offering a $500 reward for her return. She might be in the vicinity of the couple’s home, located near Barberrie Lane and Parker Avenue. But she might not.

Please call 404-784-2469 or 404-451-1460 if you have any leads on Sophia.

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