Jeremy Pack got a notification on his phone early one morning and quickly realized he was being victimized.
It was a security alert from Alternative Rentals, a film rental company that he manages. He watched a live feed that showed a group of burglars forcing their way into the shop and stealing several pieces of expensive camera equipment.
Pack called police, but he was left helpless in the moment to stop the robbers himself.
“It was strange and disorienting,” he recalled.
Since January 2021, a rash of burglaries targeting local studios has put stakeholders in the film and television production industry on heightened alert.
According to a resolution crafted by Atlanta City Councilman Michael Bond, thieves have committed over 40 burglaries at more than 30 film rental companies and production studios over the past 15 months.
The Atlanta City Council on Monday voted to create a task force that will lead a multi-jurisdictional crackdown on the thefts.
Overall, at least $3 million worth of equipment has been reported stolen, authorities estimate. And the hunt to apprehend the thieves has been hampered by jurisdictional red tape.
Bond, who sponsored Monday’s measure, said he began considering the idea of a task force after talking to business owners. Once they realized their shops were being targeted, they started asking for a more aggressive response from law enforcement.
“This is a big industry, but a small world,” the councilman said. “They are very concerned that this equipment might be being distributed — probably not in the Atlanta area ... but maybe in other regions where filming is taking off.”
The task force is part of an effort to protect an ever-burgeoning $4 billion industry in Georgia. Filmmakers and television shows are lured here by tax credits up to 30% that Georgia offers production companies.
Much of the lights, camera, action in Georgia is clustered in metro Atlanta. Rental houses serve as a venue for out-of-state production crews to get moderately priced camera equipment when they arrive here.
“We want to demonstrate to those who are in the industry that we value their presence here,” Bond said. “We don’t want anything to occur that’s going to harm or hamper their enterprises, because as they do well, our community does well.”
Alternative Rentals was among the shops that got hit the hardest during the spate of break-ins last year. The Smyrna store, which specializes in digital camera rentals, was targeted at least four times and had nearly $500,000 worth of equipment stolen between January and November 2021.
Pack had to watch thieves burglarize the shop on his cellphone on two occasions. As a result, the company made several costly security upgrades to stave off even more burglaries.
Pack is ecstatic about the new task force, and hopes it can finally bring a stop to all the break-ins.
“It’s been weird, scary, and sort of frightening. Just that violation,” he said. “It gives you kind of a sick, angry feeling.”
The crimes have happened in the jurisdictions of 13 metro Atlanta law enforcement agencies, each of which is investigating its set of burglaries independently.
The focus of the new task force is to bring all the impacted agencies together so investigators can collaborate. It will be coordinated through the Atlanta Police Department.
So far, investigators in metro Atlanta have been able to make just one arrest. On Nov. 30, Marietta police arrested a 17-year-old suspected of being one of three robbers who broke into a rental shop and stole more than $133,000 worth of camera and lighting gear. According to an arrest warrant, one of the stolen bags had a GPS tracker inside and the owner used it to lead officers to the teen’s Atlanta house, where they found many of the stolen items.
Masked suspects in several of the cases have the same body type. They’ve also followed the same pattern, striking fast, early and often in groups of three, four or five.
The robbers are usually in and out in under five minutes, according to the reports. In many instances, even when they’ve triggered the security alarms, they’re long gone by the time police arrive.
They’ve gotten away with camera lenses, tripods, boom microphones, strobe lights, iPads, Mac Books, still photo cameras, drone cameras, Steadicams, filming rigs, computers and expensive video cams, reports indicate.
“The videos seem to imply that it’s perhaps the same group, or a small group of people who might be closely related,” Bond said. “Because there are a lot of traits in the way that they’re committing the crimes. And in some of those, it appears that they might even be driving the same vehicle.”
Several of the business owners have told police the thieves often bypass cheaper equipment at the front of the store and go straight for areas in the back where the most expensive items are stored. That has many of the victims concerned that someone is tipping off the robbers.
“It’s especially frustrating because it appears that there’s somebody who has insider information,” said Lance Holland, who owns Encyclomedia, a studio near Candler Park in northeast Atlanta.
Thieves broke into Holland’s business Nov. 9 and stole about $50,000 worth of equipment. Holland, who subleases space to other production companies, had to pay nearly $8,000 to repair the front doors, which were pried open. He also made several security upgrades.
When thieves tried to break in again Jan. 9, they couldn’t get past the reinforced interior doors.
“I’m so glad they’ve put together a task force. I’m hoping that they can put the dots together a little better than we’ve been able to,” Holland said. “It just seems like with all the information and video, security footage and everything that we’ve gotten, that somebody should be able to put two and two together and figure it out.”
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