Flat-screen TV thieves hit 4 Atlanta bars

Atlanta police Thursday were investigating predawn break-ins at four bars, apparently by the same thieves targeting flat-screen televisions.

The first burglary happened at 4:50 a.m. at The Albert, an Inman Park pub in the 900 block of Austin Avenue. At least one flat-screen TV was taken, according to Atlanta police spokesman Eric Schwartz.

Police later responded to a 6:18 a.m. alarm at 97 Estoria, a bar on Wylie Street in Cabbagetown, where police dispatchers again reported at least one flat-screen TV stolen.

Eighteen minutes later, officers were sent to the North Highland Pub on North Highland Avenue. There, suspects described as two black males wearing masks took a 42- and a 50-inch television.

Schwartz said the Matador Mexican Cantina and Tequila Bar on Garrett Street in East Atlanta was also burglarized, and while the thieves apparently didn’t steal any TVs from that bar, Schwartz said investigators had connected it to the other heists.

A gray minivan was believed to be involved in all four burglaries, Schwartz said.

Metro Atlanta has been plagued by thefts of flat-screen TVs in recent months.

Police in Atlanta and in Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties all have reported flat-screen TV thefts, and Clayton police earlier this year arrested members of what they called the “hit squad,” a group police said was reponsible for the theft of more than 200 flat-screen TVs.

In February, Atlanta police and other agencies set up a task force to investigate flat-screen thefts.