MORROW, Ga. -- The table of shirts and pants reveals a highbrow taste for designer styles.
The table is in the conference room of the Morrow Police Department, where police officers conducting the inventory. They're taking stock of goods recovered from a half dozen suspected thieves.
"Roughly we're looking at $25,000 in stolen merchandise taken from Macy's," said Captain James Callaway of Morrow PD.
Callaway says the young thieves stole a car and smashed it into a Macy's window at Southlake mall early Sunday morning. Then they loaded a second stolen vehicle -- a minivan -- with armloads of designer clothes they took from the store. Their criminal success was short-lived.
"As soon as the van was leaving the area of the break-in, police officers gave chase to that van. So they didn't really have a chance to get away from us. The area was saturated with police," Callaway said.
The arrest of four of the suspects had a slightly madcap quality to it. Police say they found two of the suspects hiding in a mens room at a Waffle House on Tara Blvd. They found the other suspects seated in the dining room, at a table, as if about to order breakfast.
One suspect was captured in a nearby wooded area. Another turned himself in.
Police arrested a total of six teens. The three adults are 18-year old Melvin Alison; 18-year old Eric Davis; and 17 year old Octavis Nix. The others are fifteen and sixteen years old, charged as juveniles.
Morrow police say the six are gang members. Police are investigating their possible connection to an Atlanta based gang called Thirty Deep -- well known for its smash-and-grab heists.Police say Thirty Deep is among the gangs extensively using the web to communicate -- as well as thump their chests and brag about their exploits.
A Myspace page police say is run by Thirty Deep has more than a hundred photographs, mostly showing young men and women flashing gang signs. In some of them, they're holding cash and weapons.
The site is also filled with cryptic status updates that are studied closely by metro area police.
"We've investigated Facebook accounts and Myspace accounts that are related to gangs," Callaway said. "We learn a lot. And what we do learn, we share with other law enforcement throughout the state of Georgia.
