Crime Blotter, Sept. 30-Oct. 4

Armed group robs apartment complex resident
Four men robbed a resident of The Heights Apartments, 3028 Chamblee Tucker Road, on Oct. 1, DeKalb County police said.

The resident told police she’d visited a nearby to buy beer. When she got home, she noticed four men walking across the parking lot toward her, so she hurried to get the beer from her car and get to her apartment. Before she could open her apartment door, the men had come up behind her and grabbed her, attempting to get her purse.

She fought back, and two of the men pulled out small, chrome pistols. At that point, she gave up her purse, and the suspects ran out to the parking lot. She watched them get into a new model, four-door black Ford Explorer with heavily tinted windows and drive away.

No injuries were reported. The suspects are described as follows:

• Black male, 18 to 20 years old, 6 feet 1 inches, skinny build, wearing a black baseball cap, blue bandana over his face, black T-shirt and sagging blue jeans. Armed with a small chrome pistol.
• Same description.
• Black male, 18 to 20 years old, 6 feet 1 inches, skinny build, wearing a black baseball cap, black ski mask over his face, black T-shirt and sagging blue jeans.
• Black male, 18 to 20 years old, 6 feet 1 inches, skinny build, wearing a black baseball cap, black T-shirt and sagging blue jeans.
• This suspect stayed in the getaway vehicle.

A fight with a locksmith
A woman living at The Crossing at Henderson Mill (3270 Lansbury Village Drive) who needed a locksmith Oct. 4 found herself literally fighting with the locksmith over a dispute in pay, police said.

The woman said she’d locked her keys inside her Toyota Corolla and called a locksmith to retrieve them. Afterward, the locksmith told her that the charge for retrieval was $110, but the woman said she’d seen an Internet ad from the locksmith company that said it would be about $50. She told the man she could only pay him $60 at most. The man grew mad, refused to accept that amount and threatened to tow her car. She got in her car and tried to leave.

While she sat in her driver’s seat, the man opened the door, reached in and tried to take her keys from the ignition. He was unable to do so. She was holding the $60 in her left hand along with keys to her old house, so he grabbed her left hand and took the keys. He also tried to grab her purse out of her lap. She struggled and kicked him in one of the legs, so he backed away and she closed her car door.

Before she could back out, the man stood behind her car and banged on her trunk. She slowly backed out, forcing him to move, and drove onto Henderson Mill Road. She called 911 and waited at the leasing office of her complex, noting that the suspect and his white van were gone. When she returned to the scene, she noticed the keys to a moving truck she had rented were also gone. They had been in the moving truck, so she thinks the man took them before he left.

She said she found the locksmith company on the Internet, and while she could not recall the name, she remembered the phone number. She told police she wasn’t interested in prosecuting the suspect and called 911 to protect herself in case the suspect made any allegations.

The suspect was described as a Middle Eastern man in his late 20s to early 30s, about 6 feet, slim, with short black hair, wearing black cargo pants and a white long sleeve shirt, driving a white van.

Attempted car theft at Outback Steakhouse
Two men attempted to break into a car parked at , 2145 Lavista Rd., on Oct. 1, police said.

At about 6:30 pm, police spoke to a witness who saw two men attempt to break into a Jeep Cherokee by using their elbows to smash the passenger side window. Once the suspects saw the witness, they got into their car–a champagne-colored Cadillac SRX–and left. The officer noted the suspects tried to pry open the drivers’ side door with a tool. When that wasn’t successful, they tried breaking the passenger window with their elbows. Fingerprints were found on the vehicle, so police told the vehicle’s owner how to lift them from the vehicle’s surface.

The two suspects are described as follows:

• Black male, mid-twenties to early thirties in age, medium build, wearing a heavy jacket and jeans
• Black male with a beard and medium field. He drove the Cadillac.

Front door kicked in
A woman living in the Valley Brook Place Apartments (3324 Valley Brook Place) reported that her front door was kicked in Oct. 3, police said.

The woman told police that although her door was kicked in, nothing had been taken.