Police: Alert citizen helps solve previous armed robbery

ATLANTA - An alert citizen felt something was off, and police said he was right. He spotted a teen walking down the road ripping open packages, and throwing the contents on the ground. He had a hunch that teen had stolen the packages from front porches and flagged down an officer. Turns out that teen was involved in a whole lot more than just stealing.

Atlanta Police said the day before the juvenile was stealing packages he actually stole a gun and used it to rob two people. One of those robberies occurred at an Atlanta park and police said through their investigation they learned he wasn’t working alone.

“It didn’t seem right, look right, or feel right, so I said something,” said Kevin Ouzts.

It was a move that helped Atlanta police get two armed robbers off the street.

Ouzts was working at his store when he noticed a teen walking down the sidewalk.

“He had several packages in his hand. It was a couple of days after Christmas and I saw him just tearing the packages open and throwing the items on the ground. I walked up to him and said hey man you dropped this and he threw some expletives at me and I thought that’s unusual,” said Ouzts.

He followed the teen and flagged down an officer, never expecting what he would hear next. In addition to having stolen packages, police said the teen also had a stolen revolver in his pocket.

“The gun actually had two shell casing that had been fired so the officer could tell the gun had recently been fired,” said Sgt. Warren Pickard, Atlanta Police Department.

Sgt. Pickard said it didn’t take long for investigators to figure out the night before, a robbery occurred at a park around the corner, where the robber fired two shots in the air.

The victim in that robbery met me at the park, but didn’t want to be identified. She’s glad her robbers are off the street. Something police said wouldn’t have happened so quickly without that tip.

“I did what I thought was right,” said Ouzts.

Investigators said the teen told them that his father was in jail for murder and he didn’t care about being arrested.

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