A 53-year-old Atlanta man has been arrested and charged in connection with the thefts of dozens of cars that were sold to salvage yards in Fayette County, authorities said.
Christopher Davis was taken into custody Wednesday after someone tipped police that a stolen car had turned up at a junkyard in Fayetteville, according to Investigator Brent Rowan, spokesman for the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.
“We have charged him with 26 counts of theft by receiving, meaning he had possession of stolen vehicles and basically sold them to be recycled,” Rowan said. “There’s always a possibility of more, but right now we’ve tied him to 26.”
Representatives of Quality Used Auto Parts and M&S Auto Parts, both in Fayetteville, provided sheriff’s investigators with vehicle identification numbers that allegedly linked Davis to stolen autos he had sold to them since May.
Deputies determined that in several instances, Davis allegedly took the vehicles straight to the salvage yards, before information that they were missing showed up in nationwide databases of stolen vehicles. The cars were crushed for their recyclable metals.
Rowan declined to say if Davis had stolen the cars himself, where they were taken from or how much money the suspect made in the deals; nor would the sheriff’s officer disclose if additional arrests were possible, saying those matters were still being investigated.
Davis was being held Thursday in Fayette County Jail.
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