Cigarette Thieves Strike Again

Each week, Lilburn Patch takes a deeper look into recent crime reports from the Gwinnett and Lilburn police departments.

Turns Out Cigarettes Are a Commonly Stolen Item

, the Rite Aid on the corner of Killian Hill Road and Five Forks-Trickum Road was burglarized last weekend of cigars and cigarettes. This time, the suspect(s) stole $1,200 to $1,500 worth of cigarettes: around 120 packs of Marlboro and Salem cigarettes, 30 to 40 packs of Swisher Sweets and 10 to 15 packs of Black & Mild Cigars.

Nothing else was reported stolen. The store has a video surveillance system, but it stopped recording after 6:45 p.m. the day before.

Another commonality between the two: The suspect(s) appeared to have entered each business by smashing a glass door with a rock, which was left next to the broken glass of both businesses.

Gwinnett Police spokesman Cpl. Jake Smith said in an email that there's definitely a possibility of a connection between the two cases. Smith also said that cigarettes are a commonly stolen item.

"It’s easy to re-sell them, and of course, smokers like to smoke," he said. Unlike electronics, he added, it’s almost impossible to track where cigarettes came from.

Findings of an Impound Driver

An impound driver called Gwinnett police last week to report a wallet he found in the glove compartment of a white Chrysler 300 he had repossessed earlier that day from a Lilburn address.

The wallet contained falsified checks, three debit cards (under different names) and three fake Georgia driver's licenses (all with the same photo but different names, which matched the checks but not the cards). The debit cards were the only items that appeared to be authentic.

The outside of the vehicle displayed a temporary tag, but the real license plate was located in the trunk. The vehicle, which also had an Atlanta elementary school parking pass hanging from the rearview mirror, was registered to a 39-year-old Atlanta woman.

All of the first names on the evidence appear to be men's names (Andre, Anthony and Charles, to name a few), but the woman is being listed as a suspect because she is the registered owner of the vehicle.

Another Cigarette Incident

When a 37-year-old male exited a taxi cab to enter an apartment complex on the 4800 block of Burns Road, a male outside asked him for a cigarette.

He said he didn't have one and proceeded to his apartment.

After a moment, the second man said something hard to decipher and then pointed a "chrome or shiny metallic object" at the 37-year-old. In an attempt to distract the man with the shiny object, the victim pulled his sweatshirt "partially over his upper torso" and ran away to call police. The victim told police that the man fell to the ground during the altercation and ran away without any of the victim's property. 

Gwinnett police searched the area afterward but found nothing. The victim said the suspect was black, had a height range of 5'5" to 5'7", weighed 125 pounds to 140 pounds, had a thin build and short, cropped hair.