Flyer Guy trying Doors
Who is this flyer guy trying doors?
Last week we told you about suspicious individuals placing flyers as a front for casing cars for a break-in. A few days ago, a resident shared with us some video stills of an individual trying doors as he placed flyers on doors of homes in the Monroe Drive & Vedado Way area. We are still working to determine whether the subject in the surveillance video is a male hustler already known to us. We have posted the still shots at our website – please let us know what you know about this individual. CBS Atlanta ran a story about this individual (linked below)– this prompted our contacts in Virginia Highland to alert us to sightings of the same person over there. We have the surveillance pictures of the offending individual on the website version of this article.
Over the years we have found that flyers may pose a special risk to us. While many of the flyer distributions taking place come with no criminal intent, they can pose a risk to the neighborhood. The accumulation of flyers at unoccupied houses draws the attention of street people scouting for a place to squat and set up crack houses. Area businesses sometimes hire street people to run flyers, who in turn may come back to break in. We therefore urge extra attention to this kind of activity, and suspicious behavior such as trying doors and peeking into windows should be reported to the police immediately. We also urge residents to check rarely used entries for flyer accumulation, as days old flyers arouse curiosity about your place among vagrants.
In summary, not only are flyers a nuisance because they can become litter (particularly flyers on cars), but they can also be a cover for planned criminal behavior. Officers on the beat believe some of the individuals placing flyers on cars are actually concealing peeking into cars for a later break-in. Placing flyers on cars violates city ordinance, and should be reported to 911 immediately.
This recent trend has prompted a policy change on our part. The MPSA does flyer drops once or twice a year to encourage membership in the patrol. In the future, we will always announce when we are about to drop flyers.
- Channel 46: Atlanta Residents On Alert For Suspect Posing As Delivery Man: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/24602358/detail.html
Sponsors
Many thanks for our community sponsors! While the majority of our funding comes from residents and small businesses, a significant portion of our neighborhood patrol funds comes from the following sponsors:
