UPDATE: Burglars Are Using Sneaky Method to Mark South Cobb Homes

UPDATE Dec. 1 at 8:42 p.m.:

On Tuesday, Cobb Police arrested two burglar suspects–one, who was part of a burglarizing trio and another single suspect, said Capt. Jeff Adcock of South Cobb's Precinct 2.

Adcock said the arrests were results of phone calls from citizens who reported suspicious activity in their neighborhoods.

"Maybe the message to call us is taking hold!" Adcock wrote in an email.

Original Story:

Cobb police want to make residents aware of a sneaky method young burglars are using to break into the homes of one South Cobb subdivision.

In the last month, there have been six reported burglaries and a handful of others that have gone unreported at the Springchase subdivision in the Six Flags area.

A teenaged boy confessed to one Springchase resident that he has been flipping the mailbox flags of homes when the owners are away. The flags serve as a way to alert the boy’s friends of homes they can burglarize.

This method was discovered after the Springchase resident asked the boy, whom he’d seen several times displaying what he described as suspicious behavior, if he was a lookout.

To the surprise of the resident, who wishes to remain unnamed for safety reasons, the boy admitted that he had been a lookout and had even invited his friends to burglarize homes in his neighborhood.

“He said it like it was a badge of honor or something,” the five-year Springchase resident told South Cobb Patch.

The boy had been suspended from school, and all the burglaries have occurred during the day, the resident explained.

The resident believes teenagers have committed the burglaries because “they’re taking things that can basically fit into backpacks.”

According to an email from Precinct 2 Capt. Jeff Adcock, “We have made 6 or 7 arrests in and around the neighborhood in the last 10 days including one suspect we know of as a serial burglary suspect which should help the problem.”

However, Adcock told South Cobb Patch in a phone interview that the best way to address crime problems is to have residents call the police when they see any type of suspicious behavior in their neighborhoods.

“What we need is for citizens to call us when they see suspicious things,” Adcock said. “Let us determine if it’s suspicious or not. We’ll take care of it…If you don’t call us, you’re simply relying on luck.”