Atlanta police are investigating nearly two dozen armed robberies in Buckhead that have happened in the last few weeks.
Police said so many occurrences in such a short period of time is unusual, and several detectives are on the case.
“I would say this is uncharacteristic for Buckhead,” said Lt. Rod Woody, of the Atlanta Police Department’s Zone 2. “There has been a spike over the past three weeks now, although this week we’ve only had three.”
The first week of the month there were seven or eight, followed by six last week, he said.
Zone 2 is approximately 40 square miles. Its boundaries include Chastain Park to the north, the Chattahoochee River to the west, the Inman rail yard to the southwest, just north of Atlantic Station and Midtown to the southeast, and the DeKalb County line to the east.
Woody said the armed robberies haven’t all been in Buckhead, but sprinkled throughout the zone. One thing all of the occurrences have in common is how the crime was committed.
“All of these robberies have been outdoors,” he said. “It is happened to people who have just pulled into their driveways, or people in the yard, or walking down the street. It is like a crime of opportunity, but there have been some other similarities.”
One of those similarities is a 4-door white sedan that has been reported in the area of more than one crime scene, he said. Police are also on the lookout for a blue/black Toyota Tundra pick-up truck that might be involved.
He said there is no obvious reason the number of incidents have increased so quickly, but police are looking at a number of angles.
“I’ve got about six detectives working on this thing and we are comparing notes,” Woody said. “We’ve been in contact with detectives in DeKalb County about some arrests they’ve made recently as well.”
In the past week, five people have been arrested in Atlanta in connection with at least two armed robberies in Zone 2, Woody said. Last week three adults were arrested and this week two juveniles were taken into custody.
“These may be some of the same individuals, but we have a lot of work to do before we can determine that,” he said.
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