ATLANTA,None — Atlanta police recovered a stolen SUV less than 24 hours after a woman reported that two men attacked her at gunpoint and drove off with it.
"I'm in shock right now," said Karmen Crawford, a northeast Atlanta resident.
At about 8 p.m. Tuesday, Crawford said she parked on Morgan Street near her apartment in the Old Fourth Ward and started unloading groceries.
Two men approached.
"One of them came up behind me and put my hands behind my back. The other came up in front of me and held a gun to my face," she said, still shaken.
The men sped off in the silver SUV, nearly running over neighbors who were crossing the street to the Historic Old Fourth Ward Park.
It wouldn't be long before police would find them.
Channel 2 Action News received a tip Wednesday afternoon that an arrest was happening only a few blocks away at a gas station on North and Boulevard.
An off-duty officer spotted the stolen SUV and waited for backup.
Within minutes, police had arrested three men.
"Very rarely do we get them in the same area where they stole the car," Detective PJ Roberson told Channel 2 Action News reporter Manuel Bojorquez.
He said getting the word out quickly to all police units is key to solving crimes like this, especially in transitional areas like the Old Fourth Ward, which attract new residents but have pockets of crime-ridden neighborhoods.
"It does show that communication between all the watches and all the units within the department is quite well and it helps us solve things like this," Roberson said.
As for Crawford, she says she loves the neighborhood, but can't see staying in the area without beefed up security in and around the apartment complex.
"I love it," she said. "It's just now I'm completely disillusioned."
WSBTV
