Wave of car break-ins leaves southwest Atlanta residents on edge

ATLANTA - A series of car break-ins in several southwest Atlanta neighborhoods has left people unnerved and extra cautious.

"Now, I'm jumping up in the middle of the night and checking my Ring camera just to make sure nobody's at my car," says Greenbriar area resident Laquita Howard.

The mother just moved to the Hidden Creste apartments four months ago. Someone broke into her SUV on Christmas Eve.

"We out here working two or three jobs to stay afloat," said Howard. "To wake up and see this is not a good feeling."

She and her son checked home security chat rooms and discovered they weren't alone.

In far southwest Atlanta neighborhoods outside The Perimeter, from Ben Hill to Greenbriar to Niskey Lake, residents have been reporting car break-ins since late November. Surveillance video typically captures a crew of young men.

One Niskey Lake area resident told FOX 5 Atlanta she watched three people break into her car and a used the garage door opener to get into her garage to steal from cars there.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said she loves her neighborhood and has never seen anything like this in her 25 years there. 

Neighbors in nearby neighborhoods have been sharing the surveillance videos.

"They're going to go in it (car), they going to bust your windows," cautioned Howard." Eventually, they are going to run into the wrong person."