Crew targets Canton neighborhood for break-in spree

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - A crime crew took advantage of a trusting Cherokee County neighborhood to go on an overnight spree, breaking into dozens of cars.

Neighbors in the Brooke Parke subdivision said the area was so safe they couldn't believe the rash of break-ins could even happen in their neighborhood.

"It completely caught me and I think everybody else off guard. This is a neighborhood where you don't have to lock your doors even the doors to your home you think you're OK leaving them," homeowner Justing Deringer said. "Definitely caught me and others off guard."

Neighbors told FOX 5 most of the nearly 35 cars broken in to weren't locked at all.

Surveillance cameras on Saturday morning caught at least four men parking in a cul de sac in the Canton subdivision.

The video shows a couple of men jump out of the car. One walks up a driveway. Two others walk around with flashlights and check door handles.

Then you see one of the residents' cars drive down that driveway, driven by one of the men.

"My mom came in my room and said my car was stolen," Paige Poulos said. "We didn't know where it was at the time but it was like a mile and a half down the road."

The car got back to Poulos' driveway in much worse shape.

"When I got the car it was off and we don't have the key," she said. "So I don't know if they have it and there's bumps in the car and a big hole and some scratches."

Poulos says when people woke up early Saturday morning most of their belongings were in the road, discarded by the thieves who didn't find what they were looking for.

"We're already talking about what we are going to do tomorrow to make ourselves a little bit more secure," Deringer said.

The residents who spoke to FOX 5 say the majority of things the men took were guns left in their cars.