Woman pretends to have car problems. It turns out to be a distraction for thieves

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Police are investigating a brazen crime that happened in broad daylight at a business complex on Roswell Road, in East Cobb.

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The owner of Life Transformed Christian Counseling told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell his car has been targeted twice, over the past two years in the same location.

“Second time around! When I started the car up yesterday I knew exactly what happened. Here we go again,” said Greg Griffin.

By the looks of the security camera video, you’d think the people in the video needed help. A man and woman appear in the video looking under the hood of a car.

Moments later, you can see the woman walk away with large empty water jugs, while the man stays behind. The woman is seen trying to open the door of a nearby business but realizes the door is locked.

She walks into the business next door and asks to use the restroom, claiming to need water because her car is overheated.

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“She had been in there a little longer so I just came to the door and opened it and said “Hey we have a better faucet to fill those things,” rather than that and she didn’t respond. It was like she had something she was hiding you know getting the water and not responding to me,” said Dr. Ken Kaskie, owner of Advanced Recovery Therapy Hyperbaric Center.

Griffin says the man the woman was with, was outside stealing his catalytic converter while she was inside Dr. Kaskie’s business pretending to need water.

“It was just amazing how it was obviously a distraction as it were some kind of malfunction on their car to cover what was really going on,” said Griffin.

Griffin said he didn’t know what happened until he started his car and knew he had been targeted again. Griffin said he pieced everything together after his landlord and business owners gave him security video of what happened.

He filed a police report and posted still images from the security camera video on a Nextdoor app, hoping someone could provide clues about the man and woman.

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The landlord of the building Griffin’s business is located in and other business owners plan to ramp up security measures. A number of business owners told Newell this is the first time they’ve known about a crime occurring in their area.

The crime allegedly happened around 2 p.m. at Independence Place, on Wednesday. If you have any information, contact the Cobb County Police Department.

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