UPDATE: The AJC reports that the owner of Pin-Ups Terry Stephenson was killed.

Oakhurst Mom writes in…

Any info on what’s going down at Pin-Ups on Ponce? Was just coming home from the Farmer’s Mkt & there were a ton of police, police vans & the entire parking lot was roped off with crime scene tape.

Yep.  The AJC tweeted moments ago…

Shooting, possible fatal, at Pinups east of Decatur. Story soon.

And the paper just put up this post saying that details are still sketchy.

Stay tuned.

I got a couple of comments yesterday that pointed to a “blue jean bandits” arrest up in Dawsonville, after another van full of geniuses attempted to rob the Saks Off-5th at N. Georgia Premium Outlets.

The AJC gave details about the arrest this morning…

In Tuesday’s attempted robbery, a private security guard at the North Georgia Premium Outlets in Dawsonville noticed a silver van backed up to Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th at about 5:30 a.m. The same store was hit a few weeks ago by smash-and-grab burglars who stole several thousand dollars’ worth of blue jeans, Dawson sheriff’s Sgt. Tony Wooten said.

He said the suspects apparently saw the guard and left, then were pursued by two Dawson Sheriff’s deputies into Forsyth County.

Those deputies used a “stop stick” —- a strip with small spikes designed to puncture tires —- to force the van off the road.

After crashing the van, which had been reported stolen in Atlanta, the suspects ran on foot, sparking a manhunt by deputies on the ground and in the air, as well as with K-9 units.

But lest we get too confused by the generic cute name given to these criminals by the press (using the “think of a word that starts with ‘B’ and then add the word “bandits” to the end” formula – i.e. ‘the barbie bandits’), these aren’t the guys that robbed Kaleidescope last week. All over metro Atlanta, DIFFERENT groups of young men are robbing unsuspecting boutiques and selling the goods…somewhere.

And that’s the real crux of this crime spree. No single arrest is going to make this problem go away. Authorities are going to need to determine who or what is fueling this sudden criminal interest in fashion. Someone is making it really easy to unload this stuff, and THAT’S who APD/Decatur PD/Dawsonville PD ultimately need to shut down. Maybe these new arrests will provide info to help solve that mystery.

Then maybe, just maybe, boutique owners this city-over will begin to sleep a bit easier at night.

I hope so. There’s a whole “men preying on women” component here that just makes my stomach turn.

If you thought that Atlanta was only the crime capital for sexy co-eds (ie. the Barbie bandits) you’d be wrong.  Apparently these eye candy hoodlums are just one symptom of a much larger problem.

With an eye-popping 350 bank robberies in one year, Atlanta now out-ranks Philly and L.A. as the number one bank robbery capital in the country.  That’s 100 heists more than last year!   The FBI attributes this 40% growth in robberies to increased crime nationwide, coupled with an explosion of growth in our metro area.  (This last point is backed up by a census report last year, which showed that Atlanta had added more people, 669,699, than any other U.S. metro area from 2000-2006. That’s 15.8% growth) (CNNmoney)

So what might be attributed to this nationwide up tick in crime? Well, the mismanagement team that has been misallocating and blindly stretching our resources (troops, law enforcement) since 9/11: the Bush Administration.

From 11Alive:

“The FBI used to investigate every bank robbery case in the Atlanta area. After 9-11, the FBI re-organized and focused more on terrorism. Now they only investigate the most egregious bank robbery cases in which the robbers produce weapons. “

So if you don’t want the FBI on your ass, rob a bank without a weapon.  They don’t have time for the rest.

Oh, and lose the sunglasses, hat and gloves.

“Emmett says bank employees need to look out for people entering the bank who look out of the ordinary. “Key items to look for are gloves, hats, or sunglasses on a customer,”

Last night, as my wife and I were heading out to do the grocery shopping we’d put off all weekend, we saw something in our neighborhood of Ponce de Leon Heights that made us pause and exclaim “what the hell?”

While getting into our car, two gawky, teenage boys wearing undershirts and shorts (in below 40 degree weather), ran up to our neighbor’s station wagon and peered into the driver’s and trunk windows.  They heard us close our car doors and briefly turned around but then went back to looking in the windows.  I sat there thinking, “are they looking for warmer clothing?  Why the hell are they wearing shorts?”  When they didn’t show any signs of moving along, I started the engine and shined my headlights in their direction.  For a moment they froze and then lurched back across the street into another neighbor’s driveway.

A minute or so later, they were strolling down the street pretending nothing had happened.  I drove in their direction and got a good look at them in case they were about to cause more mischief.  We told our neighbor about the suspicious incident.

This is just another reminder not to leave valuables visible in your car.  Especially any iPod gear…that stuff’s like gold.