A Buckhead jewelry store was burglarized Feb. 17 by thieves who broke into the Cobb County home of a manager and forced him at gunpoint to provide keys and safe combinations, according to police.
The crime began around 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 when two robbers apparently followed the manager home from Icebox Diamonds & Watches at 3255 Peachtree Road at the Piedmont Road intersection. Masked and carrying guns, the robbers forced the manager and his wife into their home and tied them up. One robber then left to join other thieves at the jewelry store. The other robber stole jewelry, cash and an SUV from the home, leaving the victims tied up and uninjured, according to the Cobb County Police Department.
In the early-morning hours of Feb. 17, Cobb County Police were notified of the home invasion and contacted the Atlanta Police Department about the possible store burglary. According to an Atlanta Police Department report, officers parked police vehicles around the store and watched it until an employee could arrive, only to find that it had already been burglarized. Two of seven safes were opened and emptied with undetermined amount of jewelry and watches stolen, according to a police report.
Security video footage showed two thieves, both wearing ski masks, arrive at the store around 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 and leave around 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 17. “Both of the suspects on video footage appeared to be talking on a cellphone via [the Apple video chat application] FaceTime and putting combination codes into the two safes,” a police report says.
The vehicle stolen from the manager’s Cobb County home is a green Toyota RAV4 with Georgia license plate RMJ5366. According to a police report, the vehicle was spotted around 2:30 a.m. after the burglary in the area of Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard and Northside Drive in Atlanta. The suspects remain at large.
Anyone with information about the crime can contact Cobb County Police at 770-499-3495, or email at cobbpolicecrimetips@cobbcounty.org. The Atlanta Police Department is investigating the burglary.
The burglary comes amid neighborhood concerns about an uptick in crime, especially car and home break-ins, which has drawn the attention of the Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods.