Smash-and-grab burglars who broke into an AT&T store in northeast Atlanta early Tuesday apparently also tried to shoot their way into a storage room, according to police.

Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the burglars used a sledge hammer to smash the glass front door of the AT&T store in the 2500 block of Piedmont Road just before 4:30 a.m.

Jones said an employee at a nearby Home Depot saw three or four males inside the store taking items.

"The caller advised the suspects were driving a silver F-150 pickup truck and a black four-door sedan," she said in an e-mail. "Officers canvassed the area and located the silver pickup truck abandoned at Buford Highway just north of Armour Drive."

Several AT&T electronic items were found inside the truck, Jones said.

"During the investigation, a spent .380-caliber shell casing was found inside the store, along with a bullet hole in the storage door," Jones said. "Blood was also found on the storage door inside the business and on the electronic items inside the pickup truck."

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