Thieves Break Into Dozens of Georgia Police Cruisers

May 5, 2011
DeKalb police are investigating how thieves were able to break into 36 police vehicles that were sitting in the county's own maintenance yard.

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. --

DeKalb police are investigating how thieves were able to break into 36 police vehicles that were sitting in the county's own maintenance yard.

"They were pretty bold," Fleet Manager Greg Brake said.

A supervisor arrived Friday morning to find trunk lids open, shattered windows and popped locks.

He still doesn't know how the thieves got in. The lot is surrounded by metal fencing and gates.

"If someone wants in bad enough they're going to find a way. That's why we have security. We're not certain what happened, but apparently security didn't work that night," Brake said.

The lot was supposedly being patrolled by a county contracted ABM security guard at the time. But, Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer obtained records showing the guard arrived two hours late that night.

He was last recorded as checking the property at 1:13 a.m. and when his shift ended at 5:30 a.m. he reported no problems on-site for the entirety of his shift.

"Yeah we're not very happy about it. We're following up with them and the police are performing an investigation. We'll find out exactly what happened soon I hope," Brake said.

Officers were told to remove their guns and other items when they leave their cars at the maintenance lot.

Out of 36 cars, the thieves got away with a few radios, one police jacket, a laptop, GPS and a camera, according to police.

"I was surprised, we didn't expect anybody to come in and hit us like that," Brake said.

He said there shouldn't be any cost to taxpayers, because the county plans to go through the security company's insurance to pay for the repairs.

Brake said he's looked into getting surveillance cameras.

"Camera systems for this facility would cost about $35,000, and with the budget cuts the county goes through, it's hard to do that. We felt with on-ground security we'd be in pretty good shape. We're now revisiting that," he said.

He's also talking with the security company about their performance.

"This is something we need to have improvement on, we can't allow this to happen again," Brake said.

Copyright 2011 by wsbtv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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