Someone stole an AR-15 rifle, a pistol, ammunition and tactical gear from an Atlanta Police Department officer’s personal car this month while the officer was working at an off-duty security job, the department said.
An internal investigation is underway.
The thief or thieves took a department-issued AR-15, five 30-round magazines, the officer’s personal 9 mm pistol and a bag full of police gear on Aug. 2. The car had been parked at the Publix shopping center on Howell Mill Road for nearly six hours while he worked the off-duty job, police said. He discovered the theft when he returned to the parking lot to put a stool in his trunk, according to an incident report.
The officer found two bags and two guns had stolen, along with his tactical vest, gas mask and helmet, authorities said. The officer’s ticket books, a fingerprinting kit and some administrative paper work was also missing, according to an incident report. Surveillance cameras from the grocery store captured an SUV circling the parking lot about 10:20 p.m. and backing into a spot near the officer’s Dodge sedan. Within three minutes, the thief popped the lock, opened his trunk and took his gear before pulling out onto Collier Road.
APD policy prohibits officers from leaving their department-issued guns inside unattended vehicles. If there are no other options, the policy says weapons should be stored out of sight and secured to the car itself using a cable or gun safe. Officers found to be in violation of those guidelines are subject to a minimum three-day suspension and must pay up to $500 to replace their missing weapon.
The heist happened amid a general rise in thefts of firearms from vehicles. Atlanta police said at least 1,251 guns were reported stolen from cars and trucks since the start of the year. That’s up from 1,053 guns taken from vehicles last year and 988 in all of 2019, data show.
“Irresponsible gun owners and criminals with guns make our city unsafe,” the department wrote last week on social media. “Leaving guns in your vehicle unsecured gives criminals more access. While not all crimes are preventable, what we know for sure is most guns that are stolen from cars are preventable crimes.”
Last month, an off-duty DeKalb officer had his gun stolen during a smash-and-grab at a Buckhead shopping center off West Paces Ferry Road. The officer said he returned to his car about 3 a.m. on July 18 and found his passenger window had been shattered.
His 9 mm Glock, which was stored in a holster underneath the driver’s seat, was gone, according to police. Officers recovered three fingerprints from the officer’s Nissan, one that belonged to him and two more belonging to possible suspects. The officer notified his supervisors that his service weapon had been taken, and the gun’s serial number was entered into a stolen weapons database.
It’s unclear if the officers were targeted or if they face disciplinary action for leaving their guns unattended. The Atlanta police officer was still on active duty as of Friday afternoon, a department spokesman said. DeKalb police did not respond to questions about last month’s smash-and-grab.
Credit: Cherokee County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Cherokee County Sheriff's Office
The thefts occurred amid a surge in violent crime. The Atlanta Police Department has investigated more than 100 homicides this year.
While not all guns used in violent crimes turn out to be stolen, many of them are, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant told reporters during an interview last month at APD headquarters. One complicating factor, he said, is that not all gun thefts are reported to the police. If a gun owner doesn’t have their serial number written down, it’s nearly impossible to track that weapon later.
Authorities throughout the metro area have grappled with the issue.
“If you’re not going to take your firearms out of your car, at least know the make, model and serial number so we can record it when it does get stolen,” said Paulding County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Ashley Henson. “How many Glock 19s are there out in the world? If you don’t have that serial number, it’s gone. You can forget it.”
A man breaking into cars in the parking garage of a Midtown hotel stole 10 guns late last month when he lifted the bed cover of a Ford pickup, Atlanta police said. The owner told officers he was in the process of moving, but that the movers he hired refused to transport his firearms. When he returned to his truck at the Home2Suites on Peachtree Street, his five pistols, three rifles and two shotguns were long gone.
Authorities released surveillance video of the break-in and offered a cash reward, but no arrests have been announced.
Credit: Atlanta Police Department
Credit: Atlanta Police Department
In Gwinnett County, police say more than 100 guns have been taken from parked cars since the start of the year. Most metro Atlanta departments track the number of stolen guns and the number of car break-ins, but those crimes frequently overlap. A gun left inside a vehicle is an easy target, Gwinnett police Cpl. Ryan Winderweedle said.
“We got a lot of these kinds of thefts at gyms, in parks and outside hotels,” Winderweedle said. “They’re going quick. They’ll try to hit as many cars as possible.”
If a gun must be left in the car, gun owners are urged to lock them in glove boxes or use gun safes and cables that attach to the vehicle, making firearms much tougher to steal.
“If they’re going to spend a lot of time on it, it’s far more likely they’ll be seen by somebody,” Winderweedle said. “At minimum, lock your car, because they can just open the door and take whatever they want.”
The Cobb County Police Department has investigated about 1,300 entering auto cases since January, data show, but it wasn’t immediately clear how many guns were stolen from those cars. The department tracks gun thefts separately, and said there have been at least 300 instances of guns being stolen since the start of the year. In some cases, however, multiple guns are taken at once. Marietta police are also seeing an increase in the number of guns being lifted from cars. According to the department, 48 firearms were taken from vehicles in 2019, 67 were taken in 2020 and 55 have been reported stolen so far in 2021 with more than four months left in the year.
In Cherokee County, at least 19 guns have been stolen from cars since January, according to the sheriff’s office. There were at least 35 instances of guns being taken from cars in 2020 and at least 31 in 2019, data show. Like Cobb, some of those break-ins resulted in multiple guns being taken.
The majority of entering auto suspects are trying to be discreet, police say, and typically won’t smash a window to get inside a vehicle. Simply locking an unattended vehicle is often the best way to avoid being targeted, departments say.
While smash-and-grabs are an issue in some areas, Duluth police say nearly all of their entering auto cases involve unlocked cars.
“We normally never have actual break-ins,” Duluth police spokesman Officer Ted Sadowski said. “Most of the time here, it’s them checking each door in each driveway, and they just kind of keep going.”
The department regularly reminds residents to lock their doors and bring their guns and valuables inside overnight. When it comes to self-defense, Sadowski said, owning a firearm doesn’t help much if it’s sitting out in the driveway or inside a thief’s backpack.
No one’s immune from smash-and-grab incidents, as Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat can attest. The lawman had his car broken into recently while dining with his wife and some friends at a Mexican restaurant on Howell Mill Road. When the Labats returned to their car, they found that the back window had been smashed in and someone had rifled around inside.
There were no weapons in the car at the time of the break-in, and that the only thing missing was a tote bag with a few miscellaneous personal belongings, they said.
“I have vaults in the car, but I didn’t have any weapons in there because I took it inside,” the sheriff said.
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Atlanta police said at least 1,251 guns were reported stolen from cars and trucks since the start of the year. That’s up from 1,053 guns taken from vehicles last year and 988 in all of 2019, data show.
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