Anyone selling anything door-to-door needs a permit in Brookhaven, police say.
A neighborhood watch group invited police to a meeting Sept. 2 to discuss recent reports of magazine salesmen in the area. The residents said they were concerned because they believed the salesmen were actually trying to case houses for burglary.
The homeowner hosting the meeting said a meet and greet would be followed by an informal discussion because “knowing your neighbors,” she wrote in an email, is crucial to watching out for crime.
Chief Gary Yandura, Major Donald Chase, Cpl. Tom Martin, who works with the Criminal Investigative Division and Detective Jeffery Gant offered advice and updated the concerned residents about crime in the area of Colonial and Standard drives in Brookhaven.
Gant said he’d been assigned to a recent burglary case that took place Aug. 23 on Lenox Ridge Court and a second burglary nearby. He said he was investigating whether the two burglaries are related and believes they likely are. A video of a Gold Toyota Camry, with a missing a hubcap, leaving the scene of the burglary was sent to police, who then posted it on Facebook.
Another resident recognized the car as the same one she had seen in her driveway. She called police with the tag number.
Martin and Gant spoke to the woman who wrote down the Camry’s tag number and then went to the house in Snellville, where the tag was registered, Gant said.
“We jumped in the car, went out there and were standing in the guy’s driveway when he pulled in, in the car,” Gant said.
Detectives interviewed him and got search warrants for his cellphone, Gant said.
Gant added that he will look for any connection between the driver of the Camry and the people knocking on doors, selling magazine subscriptions.
While Gant said the man did not deny he had been involved with any burglaries, he did not admit it either. He was arrested on drug charges.
A few days later, on Aug. 29, Brookhaven police arrested a man for soliciting magazine subscriptions without a permit and Gant said that same man had been warned that he needed a permit the previous day.
Yandura said since January, Brookhaven police arrested 1,400 people and 117 of those were already wanted by police at the time of their arrest.
“Keep that in mind with people wandering around the neighborhoods,” Yandura said.