CONYERS, Ga. — Criminals stole four trucks full of equipment that belonged to a local landscaping business.
Surveillance video shows the trucks driving away from the Newton County company's lot.
The company's president, Allen Clemons, told Channel 2’s Carl Willis that the crime left him scrambling to keep customers happy.
The video shows how thieves drove off in the trucks one by one, each one loaded with landscaping equipment, totaling more than $120,000.
Clemons said he was shocked this could happen, because his business was a seemingly well-secured building.
"It's completely fenced in. It's barbed wire. There are cameras everywhere. We have keys that are locked behind two doors, locked inside a box with an alarm system," Clemons said.
Covington police say all of those layers of security at Great Estates Landscaping were not enough to stop a highly organized heist Thursday morning.
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The thieves didn't even need the keys, according to Clemons.
“No keys are missing. No broken glass. It's a mystery for sure," he told Willis.
"Whoever they were, they had some kind of inside knowledge of the business and they knew what they were looking for," said Justin Stott with the Covington Police Department.
Surveillance video shows the thieves took their time: about 20 minutes. It shows the thieves standing around chatting with each other before they calmly disable the GPS in the trucks, load up even more equipment from other vehicles and casually pass through the gate.
Clemons said he turned the video over to the police
"They're all headed toward I-20 so they may or may not be local people who are doing this," Stott said.
Covington police are on the lookout for the trucks and are warning other business owners to be extra watchful over their property.
Clemons told Willis that he has a warning of his own.
"Never assume that it's not going to happen to you, because being 30 years in the business, I’ve never been involved where four trucks were stolen at the same time," Clemons said.
The company president said they are offering a reward for information that leads to arrests in this case.
Cox Media Group
