The FBI and local police believe one crew might be responsible for a series of robberies in the metro area since July 1.
Surveillance cameras captured images from four robberies, including one on Tuesday, but their faces were covered. But cameras got clear images of the suspects when they used an ATM card at the Kroger in the Edgewood Shopping District that had been taken from a woman during a street robbery on Aug. 2.
“It’s more the violence that we are concerned with, not the monetary loses,” said FBI spokesman Steve Emmett. “Multiple individuals going into banks. Brandishing weapons in a bold, aggressive way. Jumping over counters.”
In some of the images, one of the robbers is pointing a gun directly at a teller, he said.
The first robbery was of a Wells Fargo Bank in Brookhaven. Around 1:15 a.m. on July 1, three armed men, all dressed in black, came into the branch in the 3800 block of Peachtree Road, making off with an undisclosed amount of money. Wells Fargo is offering a reward up to $5,000.
A little more than a month later, on Aug. 5, the Soap Hand Car Wash on Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta was held up just before 5 p.m. There was only one robber but his description matches one of the three at the Kroger ATM. Anyone with information on this incident should call the Atlanta Police Department’s commercial robbery unit at (404) 546-2498.
A week later three masked men robbed the Navy Federal Credit Union on Briarcliff Road in DeKalb County. Witnesses told police the men came in around 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 12 and announced a robbery, waving their guns and ordering customers and employees to the ground. One of the robbers vaulted the teller counter, Emmett said.
They got away in a silver Nissan Altima. The FBI has offered a reward. Anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers at (404) 577-8477.
On Tuesday, three masked men with guns came into the Regions Bank, on Cumberland Parkway in Smyrna around 10:40 a.m. Like in the other robberies, one of the gunmen vaulted the teller counter while others brandished handguns.
Also like in other robberies, they got away in a Nissan Altima, which was abandoned nearby and discovered to have been reported stolen. Cobb County police are investigating this armed robbery.
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