Coby Sillers learned firsthand that robberies on MARTA were on the rise in recent months.
Sillers was riding a MARTA train home the day after Christmas when he met what he first mistook for a clean-cut, well-dressed young man.
Having flown into Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Sillers was toying with his iPhone as the train pulled into the East Point rail station. Suddenly, as the train doors opened, the man reached over his shoulder and grabbed the phone, he said.
Sillers, a 65-year-old ex-Marine and Vietnam War combat veteran, said he instinctively held on to the phone and shoved the man, who took a swing at him. The man, who Sillers estimated to be about 19, jumped off the train before the doors shut and the train pulled away.
Sillers called the train operator on the intercom and told him what had happened. MARTA police were waiting at the next stop at Fort McPherson.
"They took it very seriously and were very apologetic," said Sillers, of northeast Atlanta. "The sergeant told me that this is really unfortunate but ... robberies and attempted robberies on MARTA are ‘way up.'"
MARTA crime statistics show a strong uptick in robberies in the last quarter of 2011, going from 12 in 2010 to 24. But criminologist Robert Friedmann cautions against jumping to any conclusion based on the 100 percent increase, noting the number of robberies is still small.
"I would say they are up but certainly not way up," he said. "At single digits one could easily talk about a scary 100 percent increase, but I do not believe it is of a same quality such as from 500 to 1,000."
Robbers are "a bit more brazen. They are looking for easy transformable valuables such as smartphones," said Friedmann, a professor at Georgia State University.
But, he said, "MARTA is certainly safe for the majority of its ridership."
Atlanta Police Department numbers indicate robberies in general are on the upswing, Friedmann said. APD statistics show 626 robberies in the last quarter of 2011, compared with 527 for the comparable period in 2010.
Overall crime numbers for MARTA for fiscal 2011 -- which ran from July 2010 through June 2011 -- showed 48 robberies, 83 aggravated assaults, 216 larcenies and 63 auto thefts.
State Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-DeKalb, who chairs the legislative committee that oversees MARTA, said the transit system often gets an unfair rap regarding crime from much of the nonriding public.
“Despite public perception, I think MARTA does a fairly efficient job at maintaining public safety on the system," he said. "They actually have respectable crime statistics for a system its size.”
Sillers said he has ridden MARTA fairly regularly for 16 years and the attempted robbery in December was the first crime he had witnessed. He was impressed with the attempts MARTA police and the train operator made to nab the thief.
Sillers told the operator by intercom he believed the thief had jumped back on another train car before the train left the East Point station. The operator shut down the train at the next station and didn't allow passengers to disembark until MARTA police could search the train.
Sillers, who accompanied the searchers, said he was unable to identify his attacker.
“MARTA is faced with a tough problem -- it can’t afford to put officers in each car,” Sillers said. "What they [criminals] are looking for are iPhones and iPads. The sergeant said most people, if they were smart, would not get them out at all.”
MARTA safety tips:
• Conceal small electronic devices (i.e., iPods, MP3 players, phones, laptops, etc.).
• Be aware of your surroundings.
• Avoid sitting or standing near doors while using electronic devices.
• Do not compromise your safety to protect property.
• When possible, travel in pairs.
• When traveling in a group, have a designated meeting place should you become separated.
• Report any suspicious activity immediately to a MARTA police officer or talk to a staff member, who will contact police. MARTA police can be reached by dialing 404-848-4911 or by pressing #MPD on any AT&T, Verizon or Sprint cellular phone. Blackberry users press #673.
About the Author
