MORROW, Ga. - Metro Atlanta police are concerned about the growing number of cellphone stores being targeted by armed robbers.
Recently, thieves targeted a T-Mobile in Morrow where a suspect pointed his handgun directly at the employees and allegedly stole more than $6,000 worth of phones, devices, and cash.
According to the FCC and Homeland Security, phone thefts and robberies have skyrocketed since 2013 with tens of millions of victims and local phone stores getting hit hard.
Thieves are targeting phone stores across the country because it is an international business.
"The criminals will either UPS them or FedEx them or whatever to these other countries and the other countries will either use them in that country and they're not able to be tracked,” Morrow Police Sgt. Lumpkin said. “There's a lot of this going on."
This means the phones basically vanish overseas and back here, organized street criminals cash in on that underground international market. But stores aren't the only targets, you are as well.
Atlanta Police say recently four suspects getting on a MARTA train robbed their victim at gunpoint allegedly taking their belongings and including what appeared to be a cellphone.
