ATLANTA — Police are on the search for two alleged thieves who swiped their victims' laptops while they were working inside a packed local coffee shop.
According to a report from the Atlanta Police Department, the two suspects entered a Starbucks at 3330 Piedmont Road NE Tuesday from a back entrance. Within moments, police said one of them snatched a woman's laptop and ran out the door to a getaway car.
"The guy just quickly ran down the aisle way, and the guy just quickly ran through, grabbed her computer and another guy's computer on his way out the door," one witness, Michelle Sandrock, told 11Alive.
As another man tried to intervene, the second suspect grabbed that man's Apple laptop and also ran out the store to meet the other suspect.
Both victims followed the suspects out to the car and tried to get their laptops back. The woman was able to wrestle hers away from the suspect in the driver's seat. The man, however, was not able to get his laptop back, after the second suspect kicked him in the face. First responders took the man to the hospital to get checked out for minor injuries.
Shandrock said the whole thing was surprising to customers because it's nothing for people there to work on their laptops.
"Yeah, they were sitting there both working, just like I was on my computer," she said. "The Starbucks was packed. There wasn't an empty table. "
Police said the suspects sped off in a dark-colored hatchback, possibly a Honda or Volkswagen, with a Georgia tag of either CCX8696 or CCX9696. They have so far escaped police.
The two victims were not able to give a specific description of the suspects. Investigators are trying to process surveillance video from the Starbucks and an adjacent Chase Bank, whose parking lot the suspects drove through.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Atlanta Police.
