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ATLANTA - Atlanta police are seeing a huge surge in car break-ins. Just in the past month, police say there have been 1,046 thefts from vehicles. Authorities say if you look at the statistics from just the past five weeks, which is a spike of 25 to 30 percent.
According to police, just a few weeks ago, a crew smashed their way into 100 cars, all in one night. The thieves were fast, moving from downtown to Midtown to Virginia Highland and East Atlanta in about an hour.
Thomas Marshall told FOX 5 his car was hit. He says the thieves stole his wedding band that he left inside his car while he was at the gym, and his children's sing-a-long CD's.
"I don't understand it. People have nothing else to do?" says Marshall.
Police say thieves will take most anything they find, but there's a much more dangerous side: guns. Atlanta Police report 115 firearms were stolen from vehicles since September 1.
"My concern is where the guns are going, whether it's here or New York it doesn't matter. They're on the street illegally so we have to think it's not for a promising purpose," says Deputy Chief Erika Shields.
Chief Shields says investigators don't believe there's an organized ring behind the break-ins. She says there are probably a couple of dozen people; some are adult, career criminals. The rest are juveniles, around 12 to 16 years old.
"These are kids who have nothing, and it's easy to break into a car and pawn off items," says Shields.
Atlanta police say the crooks don't target a specific area and can strike at any time of the day. Police say when there's a rash of break-ins, they come out in force.
"We drill down on the repeat locations and increase patrols, flooding various areas with addition police and utilizing our camera system which has been beneficial. We have to work aggressively to get this turned around," says Chief Shields.