Police in Athens are trying to determine whether several recent home burglaries targeting sterling silver flatware are linked to similar thefts elsewhere in Atlanta and surrounding states.
The Athens Banner-Herald reported that the burglaries appear to have been pulled off by a professional burglar who cut out window panes and entered occupied homes without waking residents.
“Whoever it is, they know what they’re doing,” Athens-Clarke County police Lt. David Coker said of the recent burglaries that occurred in just over a week’s time earlier this month.
On July 8, someone removed a window pane at an Athens home and stole $5,000 worth of sterling silver flatware, bowls and cups, according to the Banner-Herald.
A week later, a second home in the city was burglarized, with $20,000 in sterling silver items being taken. Then, the following day, a set of sterling silver flatware, valued at $5,000, was swiped from another home.
The Banner-Herald reported that the thief only steals sterling silver, leaving behind silver-plated items.
Investigators are comparing notes with Atlanta police on similar burglaries in Buckhead and checking to see whether there is a connection to silver thefts in Alabama, Tennessee and the Carolinas.
Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that “we are working with other jurisdictions in the Southeast on this very issue.”
