'Sliders' take seconds to strike
ATLANTA - Police keep warning about it but it keeps happening anyway. Motorists at gas stations let their guard down for no more than a few seconds, but that is all it takes for valuables or cars to be stolen. Police continue to be called to locations only to find a motorist left their keys in a vehicle or ran inside a gas station but left doors unlocked.
There is a station on Howell Mill Road in Buckhead where thieves, dubbed sliders by police, have found easy pickings. They have struck four times in five weeks. One young female motorist explained she goes to the QuikTrip nearly every day on her lunch break.
Her familiarity is the reason she thinks she slipped up. She said she parked in front of the station, grabbed her keys and went inside to buy food and a drink.
She got back into her car, a brand new 2017 model, and started to drive away. But she had left the drink on the roof and it spilled. So she stopped. She ran back inside the QT but did not take her keys in with her. She got her second drink and left the store. By then, the car had disappeared.
A passerby told her he saw someone leave one vehicle and jump into hers. A trail car quickly drove right behind her vehicle.
"I just can't wrap my head around it," said the young motorist. "I won't ever, ever do that again."