ATLANTA, Ga. (WXIA) -- Residents of Midtown Atlanta are spreading the warning -- Watch out.
Some of the biggest increases in crime in Atlanta this year are in the part of town that includes Midtown.
So far, there is no explaining it.
Everyone in Midtown wants to know why aggravated assaults and residential burglaries are way up, there, so far this year.
Everyone wants them to stop.
"I came home and our front door was kicked in," said Meg Harmon, whose Midtown home was burglarized one day in the late afternoon last week.
The burglaries, assaults and robberies in Midtown Atlanta have been striking at all times of the day and night.
"It's terrifying," Harmon said. "We've been in our home less than two weeks. And for someone to come in and go through all of your belongings, you feel really invaded."
Harmon said the burglars took her family's computers. A few days later she received a text on her cell phone -- someone had accessed one of the computers, found her cell phone number and other personal information, and texted her -- offering to sell her computers back to her.
Police have not yet tracked down the texter, or the stolen computers, or the burglars.
"I know there's a change, I've seen a change," said Mari Chitwood, who has lived in Midtown for more than 40 years. She said that, until now, she has never seen crime like this.
"Cars pull up and mug you while you're walking your dog," Chitwood said. "They're jumping out of the cars and doing it," assaulting people and robbing them.
In fact, the Atlanta Police Department's own records show that in the first four months of 2015, compared with the same period in 2014, some of the biggest increases in the city's crimes were in Police Zone Five, which includes Midtown Atlanta:
106 aggravated assaults, an increase of 56 percent.
61 residential burglaries, a 33 percent increase.
Many crimes are decreasing across the city. But the hottest spots so far this year are in Zone Five, and in Zones Four and Six.
In Zone Four -- Southwest Atlanta -- six homicides so far this year, a 500 percent increase.
In Zone Six -- Little Five Points, Grant Park, East Atlanta -- 251 auto thefts so far this year, a 49 percent increase.
Across the entire city, here are the statistics for those four categories of crime during the first four months of 2015, with the change from the first four months of 2014:
City Wide
29 murders, up 32 percent
1,326 auto thefts, up 5 percent.
970 aggravated assaults, up 5 percent
1,205 residential burglares, down 12 percent
Midtown resident Anne Pollock wants not just more policing, but also more diversion programs, treatment programs, to get at the roots of the city's crime, "Dealing with the kinds of poverty and drug addictions and problems that we're seeing, and really just creating paths toward solutions for folks."
No one with the Atlanta Police Department was available to comment, Wednesday, on the hot spots.
Residents say they are seeing a lot of police patrols, but they also say they're on guard, every moment.
"They're patrolling," Chitwood said, "so I'm not sure what more we can do. And I'm not going to move. I just have to take my precautions and not walk at night, and just keep my eyes open."
Link:
See crime statistics in each Atlanta Police Zone
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