Crime & Safety
Cluster of Car Break-Ins Near Briarcliff Road
In the past few days, at least five incidents have been reported.
Recently, the Merry Hills neighborhood has been the site of a rash of car break-ins. Now, another area neighborhood is dealing with the same thing.
The residential streets near Echo Lake, surrounded on all sides by roads (Briarcliff Road, Oak Grove Road, Briarlake Road and Lavista Road), have had at least five car break-ins reported this past week. Many of them have some things in common: the cars tend to be newer models (2010 or later), either the back left or back right window is broken and objects are usually taken.
On Dec. 16, a car was broken into on the 2400 block of Oakleigh Court. Money, office equipment and other valuables totaling $1,555 in value were stolen. The rear drivers' side window was broken.
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Also on Dec. 16, a break-in on the 1800 block of Breckenridge Drive resulted in a laptop computer being stolen from the car of a CDC employee. The left back window of the car was broken while it sat in the driveway.
Another incident in the night between Dec. 16 and 17 was on the 2000 block of Castleway Lane. The passenger side rear window of the car in this case was broken. The vehicle was ransacked and a laptop belonging to Gwinnett County Public Schools was taken along with a toaster.
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In that same period of time, a car on the 2000 block of Amberwood Way was broken into as well. The car was in the driveway overnight and, in the morning, the owner's father noticed something in the driveway and asked the owner about it. Upon further inspection, that item was the car owner's backpack, sitting next to her car, the left passenger window broken. Nothing was stolen.
On Dec. 17, two cars on the 2700 block of Breckenridge Road were broken into as they sat in the driveway. The incident happened sometime in the middle of the night. The rear drivers' side window of one car was broken in this case too and it was ransacked, but nothing was taken from it. The other car had $15 taken from the ashtray.
DeKalb Police has some tips for trying to prevent break-ins, including not leaving valuables where they can be seen because potential car thieves like to walk by and window-shop for whatever could be inside.