Great news from a press release just sent in by Deputy Police Chief Keith Lee…

Decatur Police have arrested 21-year-old Seth Shammah Ben Israel of Stone Mountain for a series of entering autos that occurred in Decatur during the month of May. Residents from Clarion/ Nelson Ferry/Woodlawn/Fairfield/Garden reported (9) entering autos which occurred overnight, May 15th-16th. Residents of the Great Lakes neighborhood then reported (28) vehicles entered overnight, May 21st-22nd. Israel was targeting unsecured vehicles parked in driveways and on the street and taking items such as change, currency, credit cards, GPS systems, iPods and cell phones. Further investigation revealed a great deal of pawn activity by Israel in recent months and led investigators to other victims in Atlanta and DeKalb County.

Israel was identified through the use of the AFIX Tracker system (Automated Fingerprint & Palm Print Identification System). The Decatur Police Department has recently hired a part time certified latent print examiner and purchased the AFIX Tracker system which allows for fingerprint evidence to now be worked in-house rather than being sent to the GBI. The turnaround time has been drastically diminished as it can take months to receive results from the GBI due to the volume of cases they work for the entire state.

Israel was spotted in the East Ponce de Leon/Glendale area by two Decatur officers on their way into work on 06-04-11 and taken into custody without incident. Israel has admitted to entering an unknown amount of vehicles in recent weeks. Investigators are still working to recover and return stolen property.

Nice work DPD!