From Decatur PD…
Decatur Police have been investigating a series of mail thefts reported in late January in the Lenox Place neighborhood and earlier this week in the Glendale/East Ponce de Leon Avenue/Sycamore Street area. In earlier messages to the Decatur community, we have asked that you call police immediately if you observe suspicious behavior.
We would like to express a tremendous thank you to the Winnona Park resident who quickly called in this morning to report witnessing two males going through mailboxes on Avery Street. Her immediate response, detailed physical description, explanation of what behavior she witnessed and direction of travel allowed officers to strategically approach the area, locate the suspects and recover mail that had been stolen from 14 locations throughout the Winnona Park and Oakhurst neighborhoods this morning. Several checks were included in the recovered items.
Additional investigation has revealed these are the same suspects from the previously reported mail thefts in the Lenox Place neighborhood in January and earlier this week in the Glendale/East Ponce de Leon Avenue/Sycamore Street area. The suspects, both juvenile males from Decatur, have been charged with multiple counts of theft. The resident who called to report what she saw is to be commended for her awareness and quick response.
Excellent work DPD. Unfortunately, unless it’s a murder case, it seems there’s no easy way to follow up with what happens to perps in cases such as this. An arrest is made, it makes headlines, and promptly fades away into obscurity.
Stealing mail is a felony, not a misdemeanor.
And, it’s a Federal, not a state crime.
If they are juveniles, the reason you probably won’t hear any more about it is because juvenile proceedings are confidential.
I’m sure the charges are serious, but it sounds like they will be back at Renfroe or Decatur High by Monday.
Do we know that the suspects are from City of Decatur vs. Decatur mailing address? They may not be RMS or DHS students at all. Keeping my fingers crossed. It hurts when I hear someone I’ve known since preK or K has done something that wrong.
Yes, we know. According to a neighbor who had his mailbox hit, when his wife filed the police report, she was told that they are City of Decatur residents who have had many run ins with DPD and that DPD has tried to mentor them to no avail.
Darn. Hate to hear that.
why not paideia or st pius ww? you have some knowledge the rest of us don’t?
Good point. The area kid who was breaking into cars in our area last summer did not attend CSD schools.
Because the overwhelming majority of City of Decatur kids attend…City of Decatur Schools. This is a logical assumption that is not discriminatory or mean spirited or of any other nefarious thought process. In fact, I will assume (oops!) that the spirit of his comment was not about *where* they would resume their most likely stellar and outstanding academic activities but the fact that in a short period of time, they will resume their day-to-day activities. But on a side note, I would probably make wild, crazy assumption that they did not attend St. Thomas More.
I’ve known area kids to be kicked out of there which means that they were doing something to earn that fate.
Well rock and roll then!!!! I too had friend who were asked to leave private school. And they were the best fun EVER. Again, sticking by simple statistics, betcha they are Renfroe/DHS students. Besides who cares where they go to school? Weird a logical assumption was even questioned.
i really don’t want to get into this, but i asked ww. maybe it was meant to be mean-spirited. the internet is full of people making discriminatory statements. you (and ww) are making assumptions. i am only asking simple questions.
I think your statement is a bit discriminatory. My kids go to CSD, and I that’s my default. Maybe your kids hangout with delinquents from Paidea or St Pius, and that’s why you threw the prep kids under the bus.
I guess we can assume prep school kids are training for a career of white collar crime.
Training them to lawyer up, at least.
Look, as the resident Paideia grad, I can assure everyone that we would have never committed such pedestrian crime as mail theft. My sister, who went to St, Pius knew several miscreants known to savor extra helpings of bread and wine, but such larceny as described is beneath the dignity of us all. Let’s return to the real question; Were they of the true Decatur, or the outliers?
We have had mail stolen in Forrest Hills lately. I hope these teens are the ones who have been taking mail from a lot of mailboxes over here.
BIG props to the alert neighbor who called it in– you ROCK!!!
BIG congrats to the DPD for their success in apprehending them and also proving up the older cases. While it must be disheartening not to have been able to save these boys from themselves, thank you, DPD, for trying. All of DPD’s efforts to reach out to our community’s kids– the well grounded ones and the kids who may be losing their way– make a tremendous difference.
Agree with both sentiments. Thanks for catching the suspects and also thanks for trying to prevent them from going down this path. Hope there’s a chance that the suspects will reform themselves.
With federal felony charges on ’em, these lads are likely going into the system, at which point they’re basically screwed.
It was a choice they made. They didn’t have to go there.