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Midtown Atlanta hotels targeted by thieves
A series of car break-ins at Midtown Atlanta hotels over the weekend has managers on edge. What they think the young men were looking for in the vehicles.
ATLANTA - Thieves are once again targeting the cars of guests at Midtown Atlanta hotels. Surveillance video from one of those locations caught the perpetrators in the act over the weekend.
David Ragland, who manages one of the hotels, says it is a frustrating situation which leaves new visitors to Atlanta feeling less than welcome. His first question for them is "why here?"
"We saw that a guest came and told us his car had been broken into, and after we looked back at our video on security cameras, we saw that there were four young teenagers roaming around and actually saw them during the break-in," Ragland said, releasing that video to FOX 5 in hopes someone will recognize them.
Atlanta police say four area hotels were all hit within a matter of 48 hours. It was not immediately clear if all the break-ins were connected.
On Sunday, the young men could be seen clearly, without masks, walking about the garage, after forcing their way into several vehicles.
"We have security, we have the gates locked, the gates secured," Ragland said. "They just pulled the bars apart."
"They broke the window, went in and left," he added.
The thieves didn't take anything. Ragland believes they were likely looking for firearms.
Atlanta Crime: Car break-ins continue to be blight on city
Violent crimes were down in 2023, the Atlanta Police Department reported earlier this year, but reports of car thefts and car break-ins are still a problem. Many of those crimes are committed by thieves looking for guns.
"You hear about it throughout midtown and throughout the city of Atlanta a lot," Ragland said.
Ragland tells FOX 5, in spite of the steady growth metro Atlanta's hotel industry has seen in the last year, car break-ins are a problem he and other hotel managers fear could hurt business if it happens too frequently.
"Even if you have one incident, people will look at it and say, ‘Oh, that hotel is unsafe,'" he said.
His hope is that the thieves will be caught. On their end, they're doing what they can to ensure the safety of guests and their belongings.
Last year, Atlanta police reported around 1,200 stolen firearms.
Anyone with information about the young men seen in the video is asked to call the Atlanta Police Department or anonymously at Crime Stoppers Atlanta.