Atlanta police arrested three people – one of them a juvenile – early Thursday at the same parking deck where 14 vehicles were broken into a day earlier.
And they are investigating if the trio may have been involved in any of this week's rash of car break-ins in Buckhead and northwest Atlanta.
About 2:45 a.m. Thursday, two officers patrolling a Northside Drive parking deck that was targeted by thieves early Wednesday “observed three males exit a black vehicle and leave the parking deck,” Atlanta police Sgt. Greg Lyon said Thursday in an emailed statement.
“Officers investigated further, detained the males and discovered the vehicle they had been in was a stolen vehicle,” Lyon said. “Inside the stolen vehicle were several items that may have been stolen from other vehicles.”
Police arrested Jordan Watkins, 18, Jarquez Scott, 23, and a juvenile whose name has not been released, and charged them with theft by receiving stolen auto, Lyon said.
The officers were patrolling the parking deck at the Berkeley Heights apartments, in response to 14 cars being broken into about 24 hours earlier. One of those cars belonged to a Fulton County marshal, and a training weapon was stolen from the marshal’s vehicle.
Lyon said detectives were investigating if the three suspects arrested Thursday were involved in the earlier break-ins at the Berkeley Heights complex or any other of this week’s dozens of car break-ins, adding that it is “definitely a possibility.”
Lyon said that the officers early Thursday discovered two vehicles in the deck with windows broken out, but had not determined if they were broken during Wednesday’s crime spree or were new break-ins.
The cars broken into at the Berkeley Heights complex were among at least 69 vehicles broken into in the city of Atlanta in the span of just two days.
“Crime ebbs and flows, but to have this many car break-ins in one night [Tuesday] is unusual,” said Elizabeth Espy, director of public affairs for Atlanta police.
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