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CASTLE
WORKS
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REMODELING
AND DESIGN
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Among the fascinating people who
live and work at Canterbury Court:
Roger & MaryEarle
SCOVIL
Residents since 2005
Engineer • Global Executive
Multi-lingual Translator
Craftsman • Volunteer
Sailors • Occasional Birders
Editor and Artistic Director
of Resident Newsletter
The best part about our life here is
OUR WONDERFUL FRIENDS.,,
The Scovils chose Canterbury for reasons you might expect - great
location, maintenance-free living, intriguing things to do with time to
actually do them, the promise of future health care. What they didn’t
know then was how wide their already generous circle would grow
to embrace wonderful new friends. Or, how much fun it would be to
share experiences with people they enjoy.
The Scovils invite you to discover heir Canterbury Court.
Canterbury Court
Life is better among friends
3750 Peachtree Road, N.E. - Atlanta, Georgia 30319 - (404) 261-6611
canterburycourt.org
Atlanta’s premier non-profit continuing care retirement community
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26 | MARCH22—APRIL4,2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
PUBLIC SAFETY
CBS ATLANTA
Shoppers ride the escalator at Lenox Square in Buckhead.
Shoplifting at Lenox
lifts crime numbers
BY DAN WHISEMIWT
danwhisenhunt@reporternewspapers.net
Wayward youths come to Lenox
Square in Buckhead looking for True
Religion.
Once they find an unguarded pair of
the pricey brand-name jeans, they break
one of the Ten Commandments: Thou
shall not steal. The pants cost upward
of $300 a pair. Atlanta Police Officer C.
Smith works the mall during his after
noon shift and said the jeans are popular
among the shoplifters he arrests.
“I’m perfectly fine with Wranglers for
like $20 or $30,” Smith said. “I don’t
understand why anybody needs to pay
$300 for jeans.”
Theft from Lenox was one of Buck-
head’s biggest crimes in 2012, accord
ing to statistics released by the Atlan
ta Police Department. Lenox, owned
by Simon Property Group, is one of
the South’s largest shopping malls, con
taining more than 250 stores. It attracts
shoppers from all over.
The crowded mall with a constant
stream of traffic and exhilaratingly ex
pensive merchandise also lures greedy
fingers. Shoplifters don’t think twice
about grabbing merchandise and mak
ing a run for it.
The thieves have a harder time get
ting their loot out of Lenox, Smith says.
While Buckhead’s police boundary,
Zone 2, is Atlanta’s top reporter of prop
erty crime, the Lenox beat had more
thefts classified as “other larceny” than
any other beat in the zone. Other larce
ny usually means thefts that don’t involve
unlawfully entering property. Crimes
such as shoplifting fall into this category.
Atlanta Police annually release data
about all Part 1 crimes, offenses police
are more likely to know about and are
reported more frequently.
In 2012, Part 1 crimes in Zone 2 rose
by 8 percent over 2011. It was the only
zone in the city with an overall increase.
Zone 2 is divided into 13 beats. Beat
210, which includes Lenox, had the
most Part 1 crimes of any beat in the
zone, a statistic driven by its large num
ber of “other larceny” crimes.
Lenox Square spokeswoman Carly
Dennis said the mall has a “close work
ing relationship with APD” but would
not discuss the crime statistics in depth.
“We do not comment on the specif
ic security measures the mall implements
daily to keep shoppers safe,” she said.
Zone 2 commander, Maj. Van Hobbs,
compiles Part 1 crime data in a thick
binder. He studies it, looking for trends
that can help him develop strategies to
keep Buckhead’s crime rate low.
Hobbs said out of more than 443
“other larcenies” in Beat 210 reported
in 2012, 345 were at Lenox. The com
mander said the beat’s numbers im
proved from 2011, when there were 503
other larcenies reported, 401 of which
were at Lenox.
It should be noted that Beat 210 does
not include Phipps Plaza, which is near
Lenox Square. Phipps is in Beat 208 and
that beat generated 269 other larceny re
ports.
Broken down further, Hobbs said
shoplifting at Lenox in 2012 accounted
for 177 of the other larcenies reported,
down from 255 in 2011.
Hobbs attributes the drop in num
bers to changing police tactics. He said
Deputy Chief and Field Operations Di
vision Commander Ernest Finley Jr.
looked at all areas in the city that were
hot spots for shoplifters.
“What he did is, we have recruits that
get hired and prior to going to the acad
emy, we put them where we need them,”
Hobbs said. “We put them in those ar
eas as extra eyes and ears.”
The recruits can’t make arrests, but
their presence and reports to sworn po
lice officers keep shoplifters in check,
Hobbs said.
Police catch many of the suspects at
the mall. The larger anchor stores, like
Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, have their
own security known as “loss prevention
officers.” The mall hires off-duty Atlan
ta police officers to patrol the rest of the
property.
“Obviously we’re not going to catch
everybody,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs said some of the Lenox Mall
thieves are professional criminals who
see the potential for arrest as the cost of
doing business.
Smith doesn’t arrest many profession-