Possible chop shop in Fulton County

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - It's a business described as a 'possible chop shop' by Fulton County Police.

They were joined by the ATF, Georgia State Police and even the Atlanta Police Department's Bomb Squad in a major investigation Monday afternoon.

Authorities arrived to the location, in the woods off of Fairburn Road Southwest around two Monday afternoon. They went there after a LOJACK system tracked a wrecker stolen in Tennessee to the location. Bill Burruss with LOJACK said with the help of the Georgia State Patrol he arrived to the location to find the stolen wrecker.

"We tracked to actually here to this location when some of the employees got here and opened up the gate we were able to go in and find it and confirm that that was it," said Burruss.

Once confirmation was made, authorities moved to safety for a few hours,  as APD's bomb swept and cleared a warehouse building of what at first was believed to be some type of pipe bomb.

"It was hard to see and get to and it was white, one of the items was white so it resembled a white pvc pipe bomb," said Sgt. Robert Bailey, with the APD Bomb Squad.

He said there were two businesses in the back woods area. One he described as some type of recycling plant and the other as an automotive business. Fulton County police said very little about the businesses. They described the location as a 'possible chop shop', a place where stolen cars are cut up for parts to be sold on the black market. Bill Burruss of LOJACK had no doubts.

"No doubt. That it's a chop shop? yes it was," said Burruss.,

Fulton County Police, the lead agency, would not indicate how large the possible chop shop may be. A man who stopped by who gave his name only as Mark said his SUV was recently stolen nearby.

"I feel like it's down here at the chop shop because I live right down here off of Harlow" said Mark.

Throughout the night tow truck after tow truck left with vehicles as police untangle what appears to be a massive operation.

"I've been doing this for twenty years and this is one of the things that we saw and this is this is huge this is a large caseload," said Bill Burruss.

Late Monday night most of the activity at the location had ceased, except for a squad car providing security.