Two More AT&T Stores Hit by Smash and Grab Phone Bandits
What’s odd is that so far they have only hit AT&T stores. Either some other retailer is using some seriously unfair tactics to close down the competition or the black market gets some sort of great deal on AT&T service.
Finally a decent crime report from GreenvilleOnline.com:
GREER — Cell phones were stolen from two more AT&T stores early this morning after three suspects entered the businesses, cleared out inventory and left within minutes, authorities said.
Greer Police responded to the first robbery on 215 W. Wade Hampton Bllvd. at 6:04 a.m. Video surveillance showed three men between 21 and 30 years old entering the store dressed in dark hooded sweatshirts and wearing black gloves, according to incident reports.
The suspects took an undetermined number of cell phones of different makes and models, along with phone accessories, one report said.
At 6:12 a.m., officers responded to a second AT&T robbery at 5322 Wade Hampton Blvd. Three male suspects used a crow bar to gain entry into the store and then into a locked room that held inventory, according to a report.
The gang has made off with $30,000+ worth of merchandise and they show no signs of stopping. They have been caught on video and don’t wear masks though so I doubt these are pros.
Fox Carolina has a link to surveillance video of the gang.
WYFF points out that the men seem to be extremely familiar with these stores layouts. They also have more detailed descriptions.
Two Greenville AT&T Stores Burglarized
Customers were left hanging after a band of thieves broke into two AT&T stores in Greenville early Thursday and made off with all the phones.
The Cherrydale store and the store on Haywood Road were wiped out.
The thieves used crowbars to break through the windows and went straight into storage rooms, leaving the phones connected to security wires alone, investigators said.
Approximately $33,000 in merchandise was stolen, $13,000 worth from the store at 77 Haywood Road and $20,000 worth from the 3209 N. Pleasantburg Drive location.
News Channel 7 has security footage that shows at least three suspects clearing out the inventory of one of the stores. Authorities say a silver four-door SUV may have been involved.
Police Find Stolen A.T.M. in Abandoned Pick-Up Truck
Bad enough that they’re thieves, but littering too? Throw the book at them!
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Greenville police said that an automatic teller machine that was ripped from the ground at a bank in January was found in the back of a truck on Wednesday morning.
Police said that the truck was found parked in a wooded area off Verdae Boulevard just before noon.
Investigators said that the ATM appears to belong to a Wachovia Bank on Woodruff Road that was hit on Jan. 18.
How was this crime scene found you ask? Well according to WYFF it’s a funny story…
Brian Jenkins said he was taking a short when a deer darted in front of his car on Hilton Street.
Jenkins said, “It was a big deer. I hunt, so I stopped and said, ‘I’m going to see where this deer is.’”
Jenkins followed the deer about 80 yards into the woods.
“There were deer bones. It was crazy. Then I could see the back of a truck,” he said.
Jenkins said he hollered for his brother-in-the law and together they approached the truck.
Yeah. Sounds reasonable.
Transvestite Crime Spree Ends in Travelers Rest
Apparently this gender bending trio have been stealing electronics throughout the upstate and attempted to try their luck in deceptively quiet Travelers Rest. Mayhem and confusion ensued:
TRAVELERS REST, S.C. — Three men dressed as women are accused of shoplifting from Walmart in Travelers Rest. Police say the suspects crashed their getaway car on Highway 25.
Travelers Rest Police Chief Lance Crowe said his officers responded to a call about shoplifters at Walmart just after 6am Friday. As officers arrived the three suspects were seen driving out of the parking lot.
“It appeared they were wearing women’s clothing and portraying themselves as women,” police said. “They pulled out in front of a vehicle, the vehicle blared the horn and slammed the brakes trying to avoid an accident and got the officers’ attention.”
Crowe said his officers chased the car until the driver pulled over at Hawkins Road and Highway 25. Crowe said when the officer got out of his patrol car the suspects put their car in reverse, hit the patrol car and then sped off. The officer was not injured.
Crowe said the officer got back in his car and continued his pursuit. He said responding officers later saw the suspects’ wrecked vehicle just past Highway 414. One of the suspects sitting in the roadway. The man was thrown from the vehicle during the wreck. The other two men were trapped inside the car.
“All three of them appeared to be in shock from the impact,” police said.
Police now are saying they don’t know if the women’s clothing was a disguise or a “lifestyle choice” and I assume they are having a hard time reconciling the pop culture image of cross dressers as extremely meek with the reality of tranny scrapiness. I hate to beat a dead horse, but drugs are obviously involved here and that makes anyone dangerous, but more to the point the idea that transvestites are passive is a myth. The first gay charter school in New York, The Harvey Milk School, had a problem with a group of “transgendered” students pulling off a series of extortion robberies and Ed Gein admitted to skinning female corpses so he could (among other things) pretend to be a woman.
The point being that transvestites are no more or less likely to be criminals than anyone else. There’s video at the link and the three cross dressing banditos have been identified as Chester Dean Ray III, Alvin James Ray Jr. and Tremain Allen Lucas.
Former Top Cop’s Car Stolen From Funeral Home
Of all the places to steal a car from, of all the people to victimize, 47-year-old Lucien Howard Cato chose to take former Police Chief Harold Jennings’ Toyota Camry from a funeral home parking lot during the visitation for another former police chief, Mike Bridges, on Saturday evening.
The stupidity (and classlessness) of this crime is so mind boggling that it’s no surprise the thief was allegedly under the influence.
A police officer assigned to security detail at the visitation said he watched Cato drive the car out of the parking lot of the Thomas McAffee Funeral Home on North Main Street, according to a police incident report. The officer thought Cato was acting suspicious and driving erratic, so he followed the vehicle. A short time later, the car crashed into the light pole.
After the crash, police confirmed that a purse belonging to the wife of former Greenville Police Chief Harold Jennings was stolen from the funeral home. The keys to the Camry were inside the stolen purse, the report said.
Cato was injured in the wreck and taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital, where he was treated.
Cato has been charged with third-degree burglary, grand larceny, driving under the influence, driving under suspension, driving without a license, and driving too fast for conditions. He is being held at the Greenville County Detention Center in the psychological services unit.