Midtown Neighborhood Carjacking at High Noon in Highly Visible Driveway

Hours before a high-profile R&B singer was the victim of a carjacking Tuesday night on Spring Street, a Midtown Neighborhood resident found himself being carjacked, too, - in his own driveway in broad daylight.

About eight hours before R&B singer Bobby V. was stopped by two men and robbed of his red 2013 Bentley in a Midtown parking lot, two men sped off in a 2006 Mercedes-Benz C23 that belonged to a local resident who had just returned home with his pets from a trip to the vet.

The victim, who asked not to be identified by Patch, described how “very unnerving” the incident was that occurred on a sunny Tuesday afternoon shortly after noon near the area of 6th Street and Glendale Terrace.

“John” told Patch that he pulled into his driveway, which was not obstructed in so that others in the area could not see, when he noticed two black men in hooded sweatshirts approaching him. He described how he thought they might be asking for directions or yard work, but quickly realized that was not the case.

The suspect in the red hoodie, described by John as standing 5-foot-10, about 180 pounds with lighter to dark skin, calmly pointed a gun and the victim and said, “get out of the car and leave your cell phone as well.”

John complied as the second suspect, described as standing 6-foot, weighing approximately 160 pounds with a darker complexion, got behind the wheel of the car. At this point, the victim began pleading with the robbers to give him his pets – two Jack Russell terriers and a cat.

While the robbers fumbled with the door locks and eventually tossed two pet carriers out from the backseat, John managed to move around the car and rescue the third animal from the front passenger seat. The suspects then left in his car, but not before colliding with a ceramic planter while exiting the driveway.

“It wasn’t like I was getting out of a parked car on the street; they came on my property,” said John, who has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years. “If someone had seen them, I’m of the belief that they would not have hesitated to use the gun. It all went down very quickly.”

The tracking device on his stolen iPhone was quickly deactivated by the thieves and neither the phone nor car had been relocated as of Thursday afternoon.  What he did have though were his beloved animals.

“I kept repeating to them to please let me have my pets,” he said. “I’m so thankful nothing happened to them.”

John said he was aware of the Valentino carjacking incident and had checked Patch Thursday to see the photo of one of the suspects arrested in connection with that crime. While the photo was definitely not of the suspect in the red hoodie, John said the arrested man “could be the other, but I couldn’t say with certainty.”

Atlanta police, who responded to the scene of the Midtown Neighborhood crime, told Patch they were still investigating as to whether the two Tuesday carjackings were connected.

Police investigators are seeking assistance in identifying the suspects in these cases are asking anyone with information to call Zone 5 investigators at (404) 658-6636 or Crime Stoppers at (404) 577-8477.

The Tuesday Midtown carjackings came just days after a pair of carjackings in the Edgewood Retail District off Moreland Avenue.