A quick-acting barista teamed up with a tenacious shopper to help police capture an alleged laptop snatcher late Saturday afternoon in the Edgewood retail district.
Atlanta police spokesman Curtis Davenport said investigators are "looking into" the possibility that Antavious Monds, 19, was involved in a nearly identical theft nine days earlier at an Inman Park cafe.
Julia Greenhill told police Monds literally pulled the Apple MacBook from her grasp as she sat inside the Caribou Coffee Shop on Caroline Street around 5:45 p.m. Jerald Baxter, a shop employee, gave chase. Baxter caught up to the suspect, police said, but Monds escaped after punching the barista in the chest.
Baxter quickly located a police officer, who joined the pursuit in his patrol car. Monds, after knocking over a woman in the retail center's parking lot, was eventually grabbed by an onlooker. Daniel Lassiter held Monds until the pursuing officer arrived on the scene, police said.
A cornered Monds ignored the officer's instructions to surrender, police said, and eventually had to be subdued with pepper spray. The Decatur resident is charged with robbery, obstructing an officer and two counts of battery.
Meanwhile, police continue to look for two suspects in the April 7 theft of a MacBook from the Inman Perk coffee house on N. Highland Avenue. Nursing student Hilary Brown was typing on her laptop when an unidentified young male snatched the computer and ran off, hopping into a waiting gray Mercury Sable.
A juvenile was later captured and charged in the robbery, but police didn't say whether he was an accomplice or the perpetrator.
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