DM EXCLUSIVE!

Andisheh did a little leg work for us Decaturites…

I just got off the phone with Decatur Police Captain Hipple.

The duo responsible for the ruckus at Kaleidoscope and Sawicki’s on Saturday have not been arrested.

Hipple also made an important point that bears repeating – although Decatur Police are taking the incident very seriously and are working to catch the suspects, what happened Saturday was not a robbery.

The suspects are alleged to have grabbed a cash box and accessed restricted areas of the shops. That’s theft, and possibly burglary (for going into a restricted area), he says, but not robbery.

Good thing I termed them “theives” in the previous post!  Wouldn’t want to upset any thugs!

The AJC has a sweeping overview of the blue jean theft scourge sweeping the metro area and what its doing to boutique owners costs (in terms of hiked insurance and increased security) in an already tough economy.

A couple of interesting quotes included here. The first is from store owner Bill Hallman…

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s crazy,” said Bill Hallman, who has owned boutiques for 18 years and now runs a mini-empire that includes two shops in Virginia Highland and another in Little Five Points. “I have friends with stores in other cities, and I’m asking what’s happening in Chicago, Miami, L.A. I’m not hearing any of this.”

So, it sounds like its an Atlanta-specific crime wave…which kinda kills the theory that these guys are just selling the stuff on Ebay. Again I ask…Where are they unloading it?

The second is a quote from Decatur’s own Camille Wright…

Store owner Camille Wright figures the thieves got away with $10,000 worth of men’s jeans, a big blow considering Father’s Day was just two weeks away.

“To have somebody come in and just take it, it’s just a complete violation,” she said.

“Every person I know who owns a boutique is someone who’s working hard and struggling to make it in a bad economy. So to have this happen just adds insult to injury.”

It sure does. Take heart Camille! Decatur residents are behind you!

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