According to police records and media publications, young males in Atlanta have reported being drugged and robbed while out in the posh Buckhead district between 2021 and February of this year.
Police are now advising people who go out in Atlanta to take safety precautions. These include remaining with friends, being mindful of one’s surroundings, reporting any tampering with drinks, paying “close attention” to drinks, and securing banking apps with passwords, among other things.
“The Atlanta Police Department is aware of these cases and is investigating each. Investigators routinely look for connections to similar, nearby cases as well as for any possible connection to potential cases throughout our jurisdiction and in surrounding areas,” Atlanta Police Department (APD) spokesperson Teralyn Griffin told Fox News Digital in a statement.
Griffin went on to say that although the department is “not at a point of releasing details on each of these investigations,” authorities “are committed to finding who is responsible and apprehending them” and they take the allegations “very seriously.”
Fox News Digital was able to obtain four Atlanta Police Department files that describe victims’ stories of memory loss—possibly brought on by tainted drinks—before being robbed.
The most recent incident occurred on February 8 when a victim of robbery reported to police that on February 4 he “was hanging out at Bar Thirty with his brother and his friend,” and that after they departed, he “decided to stay a little longer.” Per a police report, the victim “remembered ordering his last drink” at about two in the morning, but he did not recall anything from that time to three in the morning.
The victim said to the police that his wallet and phone had vanished when he “came to his senses,” when he was standing outside an apartment building. He received “multiple notifications from CashApp” the next day indicating that $700 had been taken out of his account and that there had been an attempt to buy more than $4,000 worth of Bitcoin from his Venmo account. He also received a replacement phone.
Another robbery victim told police that he was likely drugged and robbed at the “5 Paces Inn Bar” on the same day, February 5, according to another police report.
“The victim stated he was with friends at the above location and was unsure how he got separated. The victim stated he did not have a lot to drink,” the police report says. “The victim stated he thinks he was possibly struck with a firearm and was knocked unconscious. The victim stated that when he came to, he was bleeding from the left eye.”
In need of a lift home, the victim called his mom. As soon as he turned on a backup phone the following morning, he received notifications stating that the robbery suspect had reportedly sent $1,600 from CashApp to himself and taken $500 more out of the victim’s Trust bank account—all without their PIN information.
According to a third incident report, a victim stated in September 2022 that on August 28, 2023, “he believed that he could have been drugged because he didn’t remember anything between 1:00 am and 3:40 am when he woke up at the Chevron gas station at 3465 Northside Pkwy.”
The victim “said that when he woke up at the location, he did not have his credit cards on his person” and “later found out that someone had used his Wells Fargo credit card and ATM card to make fraudulent purchases.”
Finally, a victim reported to police on April 25, 2022, that he had gone to a business dinner on April 14 and was “advised that he was drinking but not heavily” when “he started getting dizzy.”
The victim claimed that although his “memory went blank,” he did recall being dumped off “by two black women at 780 Peachtree Pkwy Norcross, GA 30092 with no phone and a missing credit card” at a RaceTrac fueling station. Around 12:20 a.m. on April 15, the victim claimed to have noticed that he had a cancelled Uber ride receipt.
The same victim discovered on April 26 that two of his bank accounts had a total of $18,000 missing.
There may be as many as eight victims with identical accounts originating from nights out in Buckhead, according to NBC News, which first reported on the spate of suspected drugging and robbery occurrences in the neighbourhood. Five of those individuals who stated they were driven around Atlanta before coming to were among the six men the publication spoke to about their identical experiences.
Chandler Rebel, the victim who was robbed and left at a gas station in August and is 24 years old, told NBC about what happened to him when he went out for drinks with friends one minute and woke up in the backseat of a car the next with no memory of how he got there. He recalled being handcuffed.
“I just remember everything was black in there, trying to scream, but it was like a hand was over me, forcing more of that substance down my mouth,” Rebel told the outlet.
He claimed to have woken up several hours later at a petrol station around three miles away from the bar, where NBC reported he had started “violently” puking blood.
Several other robbery incidents that do not involve drugging victims but instead involve victims becoming distracted when boarding rideshare vehicles and then being robbed and dumped at random locations by drivers posing as Uber or Lyft are documented in the more than 20 police reports filed between 2021 and March that Fox News Digital was able to obtain.
Numerous robbery events took place at 5 Paces Inn, Johnny’s Hideaway, Thirty, and The Ivy Buckhead, or outside of these establishments.
A representative for 5 Paces said to NBC that the establishment takes seriously the safety concerns of its patrons and urged anyone who felt they might have been the victim of a crime to get in touch with the authorities.
“Five Paces is aware of reports of criminal activity occurring in and around Buckhead but is not aware of any criminal activities taking place within Five Paces,” spokesperson Scott A. Minot told the outlet in an email. “Five Paces has not been contacted by any alleged victims or the police and has no additional information or knowledge about any of these incidents or reports.”
In a similar vein, Johnny’s Hideaway told NBC that following the purported robberies that took place both inside and outside the business, authorities did not get in touch with them.
Many victims told NBC that they felt the Atlanta police had ignored their claims, even though they had given them screenshots and other material.
“I gave the police department every single piece of the puzzle, and they could care less,” victim Shawn Brown told the outlet.
According to APD spokesman Griffin, one suspect has been detained thus far about the robbery occurrences in Buckhead.
“These kinds of crimes do pose some challenges to investigators,” Griffin said. “Sometimes the trail to identifying a suspect is an easy one, but many times it requires significant work to properly determine who the suspect is. We understand the frustrations of some victims, but we are actively investigating and working to identify anyone involved in these crimes.”
The representative continued, saying that “many nearby businesses employ off-duty officers at their business to help deter crime” and that “patrols are increased” in the area where the alleged drugging and robberies had taken place.
“With many of these incidents occurring inside a crowded establishment, or without the victim initially being aware, it is a challenge for law enforcement alone to address these thefts before they occur,” Griffin said. “We will do our part, but we urge anyone planning to spend time out drinking to have a plan and stick with it. It is important to take charge of your experience and take steps to ensure you do not become the victim of a crime.”