Update and Photos from July 6th New Street Robbery
Decatur Metro | July 18, 2013From the City of Decatur’s Linda Harris…
On Saturday, July 6, 2013 at approximately 12:30 pm, there was a robbery by snatch in the 100 block of New Street. A female was working alone in a front office with the front door propped open when the two suspects entered and stated they were lost and begged to use a bathroom. The victim stated there was no bathroom but one suspect continued to beg and asked if he could cut through the space to go outside and relieve himself. The victim allowed him to do so and upon his return, that suspect pushed the victim from her chair toward the floor while the other suspect grabbed a laptop and the victim’s purse off the table where she had been working. Both suspects fled into the parking lot. The victim observed the suspects enter a silver 2011 Mercedes Benz E350 displaying GA tag #PFH1139 and flee toward East College Avenue. The Mercedes Benz was previously reported stolen to the DeKalb County Police Department. No weapons were shown and there was not a threat to use a weapon. The victim was not harmed. Investigators are working with the Atlanta Police Department on a possible lead involving the victim’s phone being tracked to an area in southwest Atlanta shortly after the robbery.
Update:
Further investigation revealed video footage at the location where the keys and silver Mercedes were previously stolen on July 4, 2013. In that case three male suspects entered a music store in DeKalb County and inquired about merchandise. Once the suspects left the location, an employee noticed his keys were missing and subsequently his vehicle was missing from the parking lot. Surveillance video revealed one of the suspects taking the vehicle from the parking lot.
Additionally, the same vehicle was involved in a theft on July 5, 2013. In that case, a male suspect entered a business in DeKalb County and asked to use the bathroom. When the employee was distracted, the suspect grabbed her iPhone off of the counter and fled outside to the same silver Mercedes which was occupied by another male suspect.
The stolen silver Mercedes was found abandoned in south west Atlanta on July 9, 2013.
If you recognize any of the suspects in these photos or have any additional information, please contact Sgt. Jennifer S. Ross at or
Information on the case can be submitted anonymously to the Crime Stoppers Atlanta tip line at 404-577-TIPS (8477), online www.crimestoppersatlanta.org or by texting CSA and the tip to CRIMES (274637). Persons do not have to give their name or any identifying information to be eligible for the reward of up to $2,000.
Security camera photos of the suspects after the jump…
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I couldn’t swear to it, but those guys look a hell of a lot like the crew that was caught on a home security camera in East Lake. There was a news story about it and I also recall the home owner posting the information on the East Lake yahoo group.
i know others are going to say “you ought to be feeling sorry for the victim”, but my little bleeding librul heart is saddened that these guys are so young, and are essentially writing off their lives before they’re even 20.
all due empathy for the victims of these crimes–having stuff stolen from you really does rock your world, and make you more distrustful of humanity.
that being said, these kids, in their desperation, their foolishness, and ignorance of the bigger picture have sealed their fate–likely for the rest of their lives. they will be caught, they will be thrown into the meat grinder of our correctional system, and most likely will cycle in and out of prison until they’re in their late 30s, at which time they’ll hit the streets without a single practical, employable skill, and having lost the opportunity of learning how to be a responsible man and contribute to society in the critical period of their 20s. they’ll emerge, largely unsocialized, and will eke through the rest of their lives never having scratched the surface of their potential.
done at 17.
My bleeding conservative heart also pities these guys for the future. But I won’t lose any sleep on that matter – they chose it with their decisions and their actions. Sadly, their inevitable punishment is not likely to make them any better. But it will hopefully serve to deter others from following in their footsteps.
+1
I’m neither conservative nor liberal, but I couldn’t agree more.
“The greatest penalty of evil-doing–namely, to grow into the likeness of bad men.”
–Plato, Laws 728b
In my Catholic School upbringing we were taught that it’s wrong to create the “occasion of sin.” That is, put your keys and your valuables out of sight. Don’t tempt a weak person into a sinful act.
I don’t know if that is still taught but it seems like good advice.
Go ahead, flame me.
So the altar boys should stay out of sight?
That made me laugh in that “ouch/wince” kind of way.
Yup, and all babies are born innocent–that’s why they go to Limbo instead of hell if they die unbaptized. Something happens between age zero and 15 in these teen muggers and I agree with Rick Julian that it’s a waste of human brain, soul, and potential. If we only think prison, we don’t have prisons enough. In some countries like Guatemala, those with means and education (and possessions) have to live in compounds with walls topped with broken glass and barbed wire and they have privately funded police with machine guns. It’s no way to live– in fear of your neighbors who have less than you. I’m all for law enforcement, being smart and safe, and protecting ourselves but do not think we can law enforce this one completely away. The decline in schools, community programs, functional government, after school programs, job support, and family support programs in the areas around Decatur will eventually affect us.
“that’s why they go to Limbo instead of hell if they die unbaptized”
Are you fckng serious with this?
There should be special fonts for irony and sarcasm..
So what if they are? This is a belief held by millions. Are you so quick to challenge the tenets of all religions? Full disclosure: Limbo is not something I believe. Fuller disclosure: Intolerance, like what you displayed, is also something I do not believe in.
Yeah, because religion has taught us all tolerance. Hell is other people.
I didn’t link religion and tolerance.
OK,you just referred to a criticism of religion as intolerance. You didn’t link religion and tolerance because it’s not possible.
I really try never to say anything personal about myself, but as someone who suffered a miscarriage 5 years ago, am I supposed to be relieved that someone believes a baby who never did anything to anyone in the world, never even came in to the world actually, is being spared from the painful fire of burning in hell, and will be sitting in “Limbo” for the rest of eternity? Does this apply to stillbirths, and baby victims of rapes and murders? What if the murdered child is 3 or 4? Then are they old enough to start burning because they never got baptized? Very tolerant and loving indeed.
Full disclosure: I was raised as a Christian and anyone who thinks that a helpless child will burn in hell, or go anywhere else for eternity, because of something their parents did or didn’t do is a total lunatic and the worst of what any religion represents. Barbaric ideas like this would turn any sane human running the other way.
So…you’ve never heard of “Limbo”??
Are you serious?
I am a lapsed Catholic so don’t believe in that stuff, but it boggles my mind that something over a billion people believe would be out of the realm of knowledge for someone raised Christian.
[I see in the comments it was noted that the church let this one go a WHOLE 6 years ago. Wow, that and the Galileo pardon are really bringing the church into the 21st century.]
Of course I have heard of it. My shock was that an educated individual is pushing such a notion as though it were factual reality.
Um, Parker Cross referred to a tenet from Catholicism that indicates that you should not put temptation in the way of others. Another one, apparently no longer in vogue, was that, if you were not baptized by the time you died, you were tainted by original sin still and could not go to Heaven and unfortunately, the alternative was Hell. But an exception was made for innocent babies who happened to die before someone got them to the baptism font and cleansed them of original sin–they went to Limbo (which evidently no longer has theological validity). My point was that Catholicism treated newborns as innocent.. I tend to see them the same way, although not for religious reasons. So I see kids who have gone wrong as a waste of a being that was once fairly innocent. The comment was an allusion, perhaps ineffective, not an attempt to discuss Limbo or Catholicism.
Good response, AHiD.
Actually, at least as depicted by Dante, Limbo is officially the first circle of hell, where unbaptized infants and virtuous pagans, like Aristotle, go. It’s the cushy part of hell, where the inhabitants lead a comfortable life and things are OK, but people are still a little melancholy because they’ll never get eternal salvation. Within his intellectual context, Dante is quite generous to the pagans and infants: he holds that salvation is impossible apart from Christ (which is received from the sacrament of baptism), but he (like many others) thinks it would be abhorrent for guiltless infants to be tormented eternally, and limbo is the attempt to have it both ways.
The Catholic Church got rid of limbo 6 years ago. http://www.religionnewsblog.com/18025/limbo
Thank goodness. When it becomes really important, it’s nice to know that changes can be made. Kind of like when I lived in Chicago and remember the Catholics getting special dispensation so they could eat meat on Friday during lent because this one particular year St. Patrick’s Day happened to fall on a Friday and St. Patrick’s without corned beef won out as the bigger sin!!!
While I realize this is a serious theological and emotional question for many…
It does strike me as a bit comical that the fundamental nature of eternity has been changed because the Pope published a paper six years ago.
This sounds like a job for Terry Gilliam…
I imagine him drawing a cartoon image of the Pope knocking on the door of limbo to announce to all of the souls waiting there, “Everybody out! This place does not exist. You don’t have to go to Hell, but you can’t stay here!” Then promptly hammering a couple boards over the door and attaching a sign that reads, “Limbo – closed for eternity.”
Thank you for that!
Perfect. Thank you.
Where are the parents????????
If you don’t know where your teenager is and you haven’t taught them that you don’t take things that aren’t yours, YOU’RE the damn problem!
You start putting the parents of these under 18 year old punks in jail for the crimes of their children, you’ll start seeing a little more involvement and a little less criminal activity.
Yep, it is all the victim’s fault!
This also makes my heart sad, but my brain always wants to know…how many McDonalds did these kids apply to, have they ever tried to mow lawns, and what have they tried in order to earn money honestly? Is what they’re doing really a last resort, or is it the “glamorous” choice that proves they’re a man and that they are so above real jobs? The really smart young men and women are those who understand hitting singles for a while is smarter than going for the home run your first time playing the game.
While I respect your magnanimity, I think there are too many underprivileged people who do not resort to crime; only after we run out of those will I give much thought to the criminals.
The real criminal is the person that sold perp #4 a peach hat.
It could be a bucket from the local sand box.
So, we have another victim: the kid who lost his favorite bucket.
This made me laugh. Not a high order of thinking, to wear something so um, unique, to a mugging.
Maybe not so dumb. It might just distract enough that a victim would be less likely to notice real physical characteristics.
Or drop their iPhone from laughing….
Who would have guessed that an update on a robbery would turn into a discussion of the Catholic Theological Commission. There is more threadjacking than carjacking in this town.
To the subject at hand: I appreciate the concern for our nation’s youth but F these kids. I hope they cut this out before they bump into the wrong citizen.
Agree with Bo. I grew up so poor we could not pay attention! Cue in Henny Youngman! My mom taught us to work hard and be nice. She told us never to take what was not earned or ours. She also taught us that yes, the rich kids can get by with doing certain things because their parents will buy them out of trouble. She made sure we understood that she knew being poor was hard and it sucked. She also made sure we understood that poor or not we were the masters of our behavior. By the way, she was a maid, she also worked in the factory, never graduated high school. Each of her children are educated. Why? My mother stated it plainly. ” if you steal, get caught DUI, drugs, tell the police to put you in jail. In fact, that is where you want to be. Why? You don’t want to see me under those circumstances!” This explanation was all needed until I got old enough to develop my own sense of right and wrong. My mama will whoop that ass! No deep psychobabble required.
You were lucky. Not all kids have that kind of Mom. And little ones cannot help who they are born to. No question than inadequate or dysfunctional parenting, schooling, mentoring is part of the problem. That’s why such young kids can become so apparently evil.
I’m not saying that these kid thugs are right or shouldn’t be stopped or disciplined. I’m saying that it’s way too late by the time you get to that point. Being furious at kid thugs isn’y going to change anything or make anyone in Decatur any safer. There’s more kids at risk than we have public funds for jail space or public police to patrol. We can arm ourselves but I doubt that Decatur will stay an attractive place for families to buy homes if the word gets out that you have to arm yourself to feel safe. The trick is to reduce the risk of impoverished kids becoming thugs. That takes more than rightousness. Given the dysfunction of the local and state governments and school systems around us, I’m worried about whether things won’t get worse.
During the Oakhurst neighborhood meeting with police officials, I asked what sort of sentence the minors will receive if caught. The police said they will likely see NO jail time for burglaries. If they’re tried as adults, they could see a little, but unlikely. I was told the jails are too full with more dangerous criminals. I was also told there could be a harsher sentence if it was something like an armed robbery, but the focus would still be on rehabilitation, not incarceration. I’m all for rehabilitation, but I think a little jail time (enough to witness folks spending years of their life in jail) could be beneficial in possibly steering these guys in a different direction I think a slap on the wrist is only going to lead to a revolving door of crime for these guys.
I love how everyone in this thread is pontificating on the future reality of these kids. You don’t know what the future holds! It sounds self-righteous and you are essentially claiming the truth about something you have little to no direct knowledge of. Please give it a rest.
the future for many of these kids is statistically probable.
guaranteed? of course not, but the numbers are real, and ugly.
i don’t have time to dig into a lot of statistics, but here’s a start:
“Nationwide, African-Americans represent 26% of juvenile arrests, 44% of youth who are detained, 46% of the youth who are judicially waived to criminal court, and 58% of the youth admitted to state prisons (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice).”
“The family situation has been shown to have an impact on a whether a juvenile is likely
to re-offend. According to Benda et al. (2001), adolescents who lived most of their lives
with their biological parents in the same home had a 63.6% chance of re-offending.
However, those adolescents who did not meet this criterion had an 82.9% chance of reoffending. To add to these figures, the rise in non-nuclear families in the United States
(US Census Bureau, 2000) has many youth living in non-dual parent homes (Beck et al.,
1988).”
the next stat i’d be searching for would answer the question: among incarcerated juveniles, what percentage go on to re-offend as adults?
because:
“Within three years of being released, 67% of ex-prisoners re-offend and 52% are re-incarcerated, according to a study published in 1994.[74] The rate of recidivism is so high in the United States that most inmates who enter the system are likely to reenter within a year of their release.”
mind you this is not about the failure of a race of people–this is about how our country has failed its people.
if a car manufacturer had a defective component that led to failure rates like those i posted above, they would be required to spend what ever amount of money that was required to repair that problem–even if it cost billions of dollars (look up Toyota’s brake recall)–to make it right, and to retool the process to ensure it didn’t happen again.
yet, here we sit with our human capital–our nation’s treasure–and our process is broken, and is leading to abject failure. and what to we do? we don’t retool the system to correct the problem, no there’s no political and public will for that kind of proactive solution because it would cost lots of money. we just decide to spend billions of dollars to build more prisons to contain the growing problem.
this would be analogous to General Motors spending billions to build junkyards to hold their failured products rather than bringing them in and repairing them.
mind you personal, family and community responsibility also plays an equally big role here, and I don’t pretend to know the answer to this problem, but I damn sure know how not to fix it, and that’s to continue with the status quo.
and, no, i’ll never give it a rest.
#rantoff
Did you read the NYT article on how parole has changed over the decades and contributed to the inmate explosion? I can’t find it by searching. Might have been the New Yorker … Super interesting and sheds light on how minor infractions can land one back in jail. I also agree that we are failing our kids. We have one of the worst educational achievement rates of developed countries, one of the worst child well-being scores and so on. As a society, we seem to care more about goods than a good life. Thanks for writing your entries here.
IMHO, class-ism is replacing racism and sexism. It’s less offensive but still a threat to our survival as a dynamic and successful democracy. One of the reasons that Europe lost its cultural, scientific, and financial edge in the 20th Century was because the U.S. was a more hopeful place for those not born into the elite classes. So Europe lost a lot of skilled workers and talent to the more egalitarian U.S. I don’t think we’ve gone far down the road of an entitled class that avoids sharing its privileges and advantages but I do worry.
I agree that classism has become more prevalent and would go so far as to say it’s the worst of all nowadays. I disagree that we have not “gone far down the road of an entitled class that avoids sharing its privileges and advantages.” I think we have traveled farther in that direction than most want to acknowledge, and the farther we go, the worse things are going to be across the board.
Darn, you are confirming my fears. I try not to be too pessimistic, especially since I have kids. It’s so refreshing to see how idealistic, generous, and open-minded kids can be. But I fear that our country is settling out into a class of haves and a class of have-nots, with both fearing and resenting the other. That puts at risk the civic pride, hope, opportunity, neighborliness, and community that can make this a great place to live. From my travel in countries with the extremes of wealth and poverty and not much in between, no one has a lot of fun in that system. The poor are without a lot of hope and have little to lose and the wealthy are scared of violent crime and of losing what they are accustomed to having. Everyone is limited.
On the other hand, I’ve read that most Americans consider themselves middle class no matter how little they earn. There’s something hopeful in that. Maybe I’m gullible, but I’ve always believed in the rhetoric that a robust, educated middle class is the secret to our democracy’s stability. I want our young people to aspire to be successful, satisfied members of a vast middle class. If they are lucky enough that their dreams happen to take them to the top, I want to them to still appreciate other levels of success and to share. Greed is unattractive and unsatisfying IMHO.
Patch reports that there was an armed robbery on the night of July 11 involving a woman in front of her home across from the Decatur DeKalb YMCA. Not a teen perpetrator this time. Another worrisome incident. The Y parking lot is known for car break-ins but not armed robbery.
Back during the recession, I kept expecting to see an uptick in crime and was pleasantly surprised when that didn’t seem to happen in Decatur. Maybe it is a delayed effect. It may take a while for economic effects to play out.