Appliance thieves target new developments in broad daylight, police say
POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. - Powder Springs Police is tracking some appliance bandits. Investigators say two guys have committed a number of burglaries in new housing developments.
"When appliances started coming up missing, that's when we started looking into it," Powder Springs Police Capt. Jason Holcombe.
Police say it started a couple of weeks ago. Brand-new appliances – from stoves, to refrigerators, to washer and dryers – were being stolen from new homes still under construction.
Powder Springs police say two men have been burglarizing new housing developments in plain sight.
"Two individuals would enter into the construction sites after the crews would leave for the day, jimmy the windows open at the sites and stage up the appliances near the doors," said Capt. Holcombe.
Detectives say the thieves would come back later during the night and do the heavy lifting.
"They were using hand trucks and trucking them out into the U-haul," said Capt. Holcombe.
Powder Springs police say two men have been burglarizing new housing developments in plain sight.
Police say three new neighborhoods in Powder Springs were hit in October, and it appears the thefts were happening in plain sight.
"To citizens it would appear they were supposed to be in there because they saw construction crews in there and saw those type vehicles in there, and it didn't look out of the ordinary at that point," said Capt. Holcombe.
That's when police started checking cameras and setting up their own surveillance.
"We collected data from license plate readers in the area, collected video footage from businesses in the area, and we also surveilled construction sites and put our own surveillance equipment out," said Capt. Holcombe.
Jesús Covera and José Menjivar-Lopez (Supplied)
They identified two men: Jesús Covera and José Menjivar-Lopez.
Covera has been arrested, and is in the Cobb County Jail. Menjivar-Lopez is still on the run.
Police still don't know what happened to all the stolen appliances.
"At this point, we're not familiar with where they stored it, and we've not recovered any of the appliances yet," said Capt. Holcombe.
Investigators say the same two men are responsible for similar burglaries in Cobb County and Smyrna around the same time as the thefts that were committed in Powder Springs.