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ATLANTA — Georgia is second in the nation for reported gun thefts.

A Channel 2 Action News investigation discovered that most of those guns are never recovered and wind up being used to commit more crimes.

In 2012, criminals stole about 13,000 guns from Georgia gun owners, and law enforcement officials told Channel 2’s Erica Byfield it’s only getting worse.

“That feeling, that dread, you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” said Jack Knobloch.

It was a Thursday evening in 2013 when Knobloch felt choked by dread.

He was watching an ultimate Frisbee game at Atlanta’s Coan Park.

“We had a game of the week under the lights, so there was a whole group of 50 to 75 of us kind of out here watching the game,” Knobloch told Byfield.

A short time later he walked to his car.

“All my stuff was everywhere, except for the things that were no longer there,” Knobloch said.

Six people’s cars were broken into. Knobloch lost an iPod and GPS. Later in the evening an Atlanta police officer arrested Todd Hogens.

Police found a loaded .45-caliber Kimber Ultra Carry 2 in Hogens’ front pocket.

Within a matter of hours, investigators discovered it was the same weapon a former Henry County deputy reported stolen out of his personal truck 18 months earlier.

“It’s kind of scary knowing that it was a cop’s gun and it could have been used in a crime,” said Knobloch.

Channel 2 Action News gathered data from August 2012 to August 2013.

Byfield found hundreds of stolen weapons still on the streets of four metro counties.

At the top of the list was the City of Atlanta with 805 stolen guns, then Gwinnett with 337, DeKalb with 296, Cobb with 231, and Fulton with 191.

“Every gun has a story,” said ATF Atlanta Field Office Supervisory Special Agent Sonny Fields.

Fields told Byfield that last year alone, 12,602 guns were reported stolen in Georgia.

The most common guns snatched were pistols, revolvers and rifles.

“In the state of Georgia since 2010, just in the state of Georgia, there have been approximately 268 linkages between guns that were recovered and shooting incidents that occurred,” said Fields.

The most notable stolen gun in 2013 is probably the AK-47 that Michael Brandon Hill used at a school shooting in DeKalb.

Days after the shooting, which sent children running from their classrooms, police announced that Hill stole the weapon and 500 rounds of ammunition from his roommate.

Atlanta police are using the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN, to track recovered weapons, linking them back to crimes they were used in.

“They have been used in robberies, homicides; a lot of times someone who purchases a gun may not know that it was stolen, so that’s always something there,” said investigator Jennings Kilgore.

Atlanta police gave Byfield exclusive access to their gun vault.

Officials said there were about 10,000 guns in the vault.

Tags and black sharpie markings on the guns made it easy to spot the stolen ones.

Kilgore has test-fired and run at least 6,000 shell casings through the NIBIN system.

“The potential for linking a homicide to some other case and solving a homicide, that is the ultimate goal,” he said.

Channel 2 Action News wanted to know where most stolen guns are recovered and found a surprising answer.

In 2012, it was Marietta and Atlanta.

Most stolen guns in Georgia aren’t recovered for at least three years.

Police said it’s difficult to know just how many crimes are committed using stolen guns.

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The story reads like a movie script: A nuclear reactor operator recruits a co-worker for an armored car heist, gets caught hijacking a vehicle, then flees to South America only to be recaptured amid allegations of money laundering and gun and steroid smuggling.

But this story allegedly played out in real life.

Michael J. Buhrman, a senior reactor operator at the Dresden nuclear plant near Chicago, is the alleged mastermind of the wild scheme, which was supposedly inspired by the 2010 Ben Affleck movie “The Town,” in which a group of Boston buddies rob several banks and Fenway Park. He was extradited from Venezuela late last month after a year on the lam and is serving a 40-year sentence for the carjacking.

He may face additional charges in connection with his international flight and alleged smuggling.

“I’ve been in investigations quite a bit of my career, and for someone like Michael Buhrman, who seemed to have a lot going for him, to be messed up in something like this, I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Woodridge, Ill., Deputy Police Chief Tom Stefanson.

The case also sent ripples through the nuclear power industry, prompting the Exelon Corp. – which owns the Dresden plant and is the largest U.S. operator of nuclear reactors – to change how it trains its employees to spot and report behavior that might pose a security threat.

According to court and Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents, Buhrman tried to recruit co-workers at the nuclear plant, about 45 miles south of Chicago, and eventually succeeded in persuading colleague Landon Brittain to participate in the robbery of an armored car.

On May 9, 2012, Buhrman accosted a woman in a parking lot outside a Kohl’s store in Woodridge, about 30 minutes west of Chicago. Police said he was disguised as an old man in an elaborate latex mask and threatened the woman with a .45-caliber Beretta semiautomatic handgun before speeding off in her 2000 Pontiac Grand Am. But a witness followed and called police, who corraled Buhrman less than a quarter mile away.

Police say Brittain, another senior reactor operator at the nuclear plant, acted as a lookout during the carjacking – though he wasn’t arrested at the time. (See the indictments here in PDF.) According to NRC documents, the two men intended to use the stolen car in the armored car robbery.

Buhrman was released on bond, but police said they were alerted by a girlfriend that he had access to offshore bank accounts, had purchased $100,000 in gold and intended to flee to Chile. In June 2012, a judge added conditions to his bail, including a GPS ankle monitor.

That proved insufficient to keep Buhrman grounded. In September, police responded to an alert from the monitor and found it cut off in his Coal City home. An Illinois State Police sergeant testified later that there had been an attempt to make it appear that there had been a break-in and that Buhrman had been forcibly removed. Police also testified that $14,000 that had been deposited into Buhrman’s bank account from a foreign source was withdrawn three days before he disappeared.

Richard Blass, Buhrman’s attorney, told NBC News that there were signs of violence at the scene but that he had not been allowed to speak to Buhrman since he was brought back to the U.S. Blass did say that an appeal was being explored.

Brittain’s attorney did not return a call seeking comment, Brittain has pleaded not guilty.

Melissa Gates, who divorced Buhrman in 2008, told NBC News that he came to see their son three days before he fled, but gave no indication that he planned to leave the country. She has been cooperating with authorities.

A month after Buhrman vanished, Brittain’s family reported him missing and started an online campaign to find him. At the time, he was a person of interest in the carjacking, said Stefanson, who added that he could not say more about Brittain because his case is pending.

Police suspected both men had fled to South America, and in April 2013, Buhrman was convicted in absentia in the carjacking. The bank robbery plot emerged a month later at another hearing at which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

By then, Buhrman and Brittain were reportedly living the high life in Venezuela. An independent journalist who has covered the case cited police sources in Venezuela as saying the former power plant operators made their way to the South American country, rented an apartment in a luxury high-rise building in Caracas and frequented a nearby gym.

They might be there yet had they not gotten involved with a man who was under suspicion of drug trafficking, illegal weapons trade and money laundering by authorities there, said Lucas Hixson, who writes for the Enformable website, which covers the nuclear power industry.

According to Hixson’s sources, the Venezuelan intelligence agency SEBIN soon grew interested in Buhrman and Brittain as well. Hixson reported that the sources told him that agents discovered that Buhrman conspired with the Venezuelan man to ship $500,000 in cash into Venezuela in a shipment of nutritional supplements. Once there, the Venezuelan took the money and tried to betray the men to police, the sources told Hixson, adding that SEBIN also investigated Buhrman and Brittain in cases involving smuggling of illegal arms and steroids.

In the end, Buhrman and Brittain, the Venezuelan man and a number of other Venezuelans all were arrested and both Americans were deported, Hixson reported.

Brittain was sent back to the United States in July. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is next scheduled to appear in court in December, said Paul Darrah, a spokesman for the DuPage County state’s attorney.

Buhrman was arrested in Venezuela in September and was extradited to the U.S. at the end of October, Darrah said. He was handed over to state custody to begin serving his 40-year prison term.

Stefanson, the Woodridge police deputy chief, said he could not comment on whether Buhrman and Brittain were under investigation in connection with other crimes. A spokeswoman for the FBI office in Chicago declined to comment on the case.

Of the reports about Buhrman during his time in Venezuela, Blass, his attorney, said: “Anytime anybody is convicted of something and leaves, what’s said about them is going to be sensationalized.”

The NRC also examined the security lapse at the Dresden plant and said in a letter to Exelon, the plant’s operator, that its investigators concluded another plant worker had been approached by the plotters to join in the robbery. Exelon Generating spokeswoman Krista Lopykinski said that employee dismissed the plot as not credible but failed to report it to supervisors. The employee no longer works for the company, she said.

In addition, the letter said, another senior reactor operator learned about the plot after Buhrman’s arrest but delayed telling a supervisor for several hours. The NRC found the delay unacceptable, said Bob Osgood, site communications manager for the Dresden plant, but the operator still works for Exelon.

After mediation with the NRC, Exelon agreed to revise its “Behavioral Observation” training program to include “an expectation to report offsite illegal activity.” It also conducted a company-wide briefing on the issue; and trained personnel at the Dresden plant. Exelon representatives pointed out that the recruiting, planning and execution of the carjacking didn’t occur at the plant. Asked if safety at the plant was ever compromised, Lopykinski said:

“Absolutely not.”

The NRC banned Buhrman and Brittain from ever setting foot at a U.S. nuclear plant again. In letters dated Oct. 28, 2013, the NRC told the men that agency investigators believe both were involved in the plot. (See the letters to Buhrman and Brittain in PDF. See the NRC orders for Buhrman and Brittain in the Federal Register.)

“The NRC has concluded that your criminal activities related to both the carjacking and the planning of an armored car robbery have demonstrated a lack of trustworthiness,” the letter to Buhrman says.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. Nov 17 2013-Biggs Camera off of South Kings Drive is in the business of capturing memories.

“We have everybody from the professional photographer who comes in looking for camera equipment to moms wanting to get pictures and video of their kids,” said store employee Troy Tomlinson.

But right now, they are trying to catch some crooks who broke into the store early Sunday morning and stole expensive equipment.

“Right about $50,000. Maybe a little bit more,” said Tomlinson.

The burglars could tell they weren’t going to be able to get in through the front door with this security gate up, sealed with a lock, so they went to the side of the building.

“They took a sledgehammer and took off the dead bolt here and took a pry bar to open the door,” said Tomlinson.

Tomlinson said some men were heard on surveillance audio ransacking the cases.

“There were several men speaking Spanish,” he said.

His guess is the thieves may try to resell the equipment and that is why the store turned to Facebook on Sunday to try to catch them.

“Our customers are our friends and family,” he said, “We figured we’d get it out there and get it on the Internet so people could see if there is something on Craigslist or if something is advertised in the paper.”

The store has serial numbers for the equipment which could help track it down if the equipment is found.

Police said they have the burglars’ fingerprints.

Tomlinson hopes all of that combined will lead to some arrests.

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PHILADELPHIA—Brandon James, 23, and Lenardo Nicolas, 25, both of Florida, were charged today by indictment with participating in an illegal check cashing scheme that involved cashing fraudulent checks using the drive-through teller lane at victim banks. It is alleged that the defendants and other co-conspirators from Florida, known and unknown to the grand jury (“crew members”), stole identifications, checks, bank cards, and credit cards from women’s wallets and purses usually left inside the victims’ cars in unattended parking lots. In order to carry out the scheme, the defendants and other crew members recruited female co-conspirators (“workers”) who could impersonate the victims’ identifications. The defendants and other crew members specifically instructed the workers to use the drive-through teller lanes, known to law enforcement as the “felony lanes,” to cash the fraudulent checks. The defendants carried out the alleged scheme between December 2012 and September 2013. The indictment charges each defendant with one count of conspiracy, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger.

According to the indictment, James, Nicolas, and other crew members rented cars for the female workers to use during the course of the scheme. It is alleged that the defendants and other crew members covered the rental car’s license plate, usually with a stolen license plate, to conceal the identity of the car as it was in the bank drive-through lane. After a fraudulent check was successfully cashed, the workers would meet the defendants and other crew members, who waited close by to the bank in another rental vehicle, and then give them the money from the illegally cashed check. The workers would then receive another fraudulent, stolen check or checks and stolen identification to use at the next victim bank. The indictment alleges that the defendants and other crew members perpetrated this scheme in different states around the country. The victim bank locations in Pennsylvania included Montgomery and Chester Counties.

If convicted, James and Nicolas each face a maximum possible sentence of 67 years in prison, a $2.5 million fine, a five-year period of supervised release, and a $400 special assessment.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Hatfield Township Police Department, the Willistown Township Police Department, and the Upper Uwchlan Township Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Chun Barry and Special Assistant United States Attorney Peter Hobart.

An indictment, information, or criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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BALTIMORE MD Nov 15 2013 – Baltimore City Police are turning up the heat as they crack down on a number of suspects wanted for murder and several shootings across the city.

Police continue to dismantle a notorious gang they say is terrorizing the city with crime. For the second time, police gear up and raid several homes in East Baltimore, taking associates of the Black Guerrilla Family into custody.

Rochelle Ritchie was with officers as they raided the home and took one of their targeted suspects into custody.

Baltimore City Police are not playing any games. They are taking down suspected criminals and BGF gang members and their associates across the city one at a time, any day at any hour.

Early Tuesday morning, WJZ rode along as officers conducted 11 search and seizure warrants in the Eastern District.

All of the search warrants were carried out at the same time. Of the 11 targets, two of them were wanted for murder.

Teamed up with undercover investigators, WJZ cameras roll as neighbors on Rutland Avenue are awakened to a loud bang, not from gunshots, but from a police ram rod.

The raid is a success. Police find their intended target. He’s placed in custody and taken to jail. Police say his fate is the same fate they plan to hand out to other wanted criminals.

Since 2010, the Oliver community has suffered through the loss of 11 lives due to gun violence and an additional 16 incidents in which people suffered non-fatal gunshot wounds,” said Dean Palmere, Deputy Commissioner, Baltimore City Police.

Six people were taken into custody during Tuesday’s raids.

The numerous raids across the city are in response to the bloodshed that has terrorized neighborhoods from east to west.

Just last week, the State’s Attorney’s Office handed down indictments to 48 alleged members of the Black Guerrilla Family, a gang who police blame for much of the senseless violence.

“In many areas of the city, BGF is known to fuel and reinforce its existence and dominance through the sale and distribution of narcotics, acts of violence and intimidation, the use of firearms and other serious crimes,” said Gregg Bernstein, State’s Attorney.

Tuesday’s raid turned up several drugs, including heroin and cocaine.

“The individuals that are within the community that are distributing the heroin and cocaine grew up in this community and are being influenced by BGF,” said Palmere.

City Police say the raids will be conducted at random until all those suspected of committing or assisting in crimes across the city are behind bars.

The State’s Attorney’s Office has indicted 68 people in the last five days.

WJZ

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They look like ordinary streetlights, shining down on Las Vegas sidewalks after the sun has set. But Sin City’s new streetlights have a few special capabilities that have civil libertarians up in arms.

The city is installing Intellistreets, a brand of street lighting that is capable of recording video and audio of pedestrians and motorists. What happens in Vegas, it seems, no longer stays in Vegas.

“We want to develop more than just the street lighting component. We want to develop an experience for the people who come downtown,” Neil Rohleder of the Public Works Department told NBC News affiliate KSNV. The lamps are equipped with large video monitors that display ads or other messages, and speakers that broadcast muBut people like civil liberties advocate Daphne Lee have concerns that Big Brother is watching — and recording. “This technology is taking us to a place where you’ll essentially be monitored from the moment you leave your home until the moment you get home,” Lee told KSNV.

Although Illuminating Concepts, the Farmington Hills, Mich.-based company that developed Intellistreets, does make streetlights with video and audio recording capabilities, those features will not be present on the lamps in Las Vegas, according to city officials.

“Right now, our intention is not to have any cameras or recording devices … it’s just to provide output out there, not to get any feed or video feed coming back,” Las Vegas public works director Jorge Cervantes told KSNV.

Techno-shaming?

Similar streetlights have been installed in a handful of European cities. In Middlesbrough, England, lamps equipped with a full suite of monitoring equipment were installed in 2006. When monitoring operators saw a cyclist riding his bicycle through a crowded pedestrian area, they broadcast a message over the loudspeaker: “Would the young man on the bike please get off and walk, as he is riding in a pedestrian area?”

The admonished young man shamefacedly dismounted and walked his bicycle as instructed, according to the Daily Mail. Among people disturbed by anti-social behavior — biking on sidewalks, littering, fist fighting — the smart streetlights are a big hit. “Put it this way: We never have requests to remove them,” manager Jack Bonner told the Mail.

Intellistreets lamps operate over a Wi-Fi network that’s linked to a central server; each lamp can be individually controlled. The LED lights, remote dimming controls and other energy-saving features of the streetlamps can cut electricity use by 70 percent, according to the manufacturer. They can also be equipped with pollution monitors, emergency call buttons and optical recognition software.

Emergency information

And in the event of an emergency, Intellistreets can provide useful information, such as Amber Alerts, threats including natural disasters or chemical spills, real-time evacuation procedures and other security concerns through visual monitors and audio messages.

In addition to Las Vegas, Intellistreets have been installed at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Sony Pictures in Culver City, Calif., and the Navy Pier in Chicago.

Illuminating Concepts founder Ron Harwood told CBS Detroit that the Intellistreets system was “born in the parks of Disney and Universal,” where “imagineers” (engineers working in design and development) needed an integrated network that could guide large crowds while also giving them information in an emergency.

Nonetheless, in an era where security watchdogs at the National Security Agency are spying on everyone from heads of state to their girlfriends, some are raising concerns that a streetlight that can watch and listen to your conversations is more than a little unsettling.

“At what point do we say, ‘this is the land of the free,’” Lee told KSNV. “People have a right to a reasonable amount of privacy.”

Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.sic or voice messages.

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A 16-year-old Pittsburgh boy was charged Wednesday night with attempted homicide after three students were shot near their high school just as students were streaming home for the day, authorities said.

All of the victims were described as stable or in good condition after the shootings, which occurred about two blocks from Brashear High School in the Beechview neighborhood of south Pittsburgh about 2:50 p.m. ET, police said.

Anjohnito “A.J.” Willet Jr. was charged as an adult with four counts each of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, Pittsburgh police Lt. Kevin Kraus told reporters late Wednesday.

Police and SWAT officers converged on two adjacent homes in the area and took Willet and six other people into custody for questioning, Kraus said WednesInvestigators believe Willet shot the three students and fired at a fourth in retaliation for his having been beaten during a drug-related robbery at the school Oct. 18, Kraus said. Willet declined to press charges at the time, telling police he preferred to take care of the matter himself, Kraus said.

Willet was also charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a juvenile.

“We believe we have the one and only shooter,” Kraus said, adding: “We have no evidence or information whatsoever to believe that there was anything else other than a targeted shooting directly resulting to an October 18 incident in the school amongst high school students.”day night. The six others, including a small infant, were released without charges.

Diane Richard, a Pittsburgh police spokeswoman, said two of the victims were shot in the shoulder and the foot and that one was grazed in the head. She said that two of them were 17 years old and that one was 16.

The boy who was injured in the head ran back to the school and was pulled inside by administrators, Richard said, which gave rise to inaccurate initial reports that the shootings had taken place on school property.

“There was no shooting at Brashear school,” she said.

The reports were “traumatizing,” a student at the school said.

“We were driving home from school, and all of a sudden, we heard three gunshots. This kid gets picked up. He was bleeding from his head. There was blood everywhere,” the student, who asked not to be named, told NBC station WPXI of Pittsburgh.

Krystal Henson, a senior at the school, told the station: “All I heard were gunshots. I just thought it was kids playing around. My friend said, ‘A kid is laying on the ground, and there is blood.’ Everyone started running.”

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WASHINGTON – It’s not just the federal government intercepting your communications. It could be a nosy relative or jealous partner.

Among the five people added this week to the FBI’s list of “most wanted” cybercriminals is a former San Diego college student who developed an $89 program called “Loverspy” or “Email PI.” Sold online from his apartment, the program was advertised as a way to “catch a cheating lover” by sending the person an electronic greeting card that, if opened, would install malicious software to capture emails and instant messages, even spy on someone using the victim’s own webcam.

The case of Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara, 33, is noteworthy because he appears to have made relatively little money on the scheme, unlike others on the FBI list who were accused of bilking millions of dollars from businesses and Internet users worldwide. But Perez-Melara, a native of El Salvador who was in the United States on a student visa in 2003 when he sold the spyware, allegedly helped turn average computer users into sophisticated hackers who could stalk their victims.

Loverspy was designed “with stealth in mind, claiming that it would be impossible to detect by 99.9 percent of users,” according to a July 2005 federal indictment of Perez-Melara.

A section chief with the FBI who oversees operations in the agency’s cyber division, John Brown, said Loverspy was one of many illegal “hacking-for-hire” services. In one case earlier this year, a New York police detective was arrested for spending more than $4,000 on hacking services to obtain the emails of more than a dozen of his colleagues. Many of the operators tend to be based overseas.

“These are sophisticated folks who know how to hide themselves on the Internet,” Brown said.

Brown said Perez-Melara was added to the FBI most wanted list in part because the former college student has been so difficult to find. Perez-Melara has eluded the authorities since his indictment eight years ago with his last known location as El Salvador. The government is now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

According to his indictment, Perez-Melara sold the software to 1,000 customers, who then tried to infect about 2,000 computers. Victims took the bait only about half the time, the government said. People who purchased the spyware were charged with illegally intercepting electronic communications. Most of those cases appear to have resulted in probation and fines.

In addition to hacking-for-hire services, there is an established commercial market for snooping software that domestic violence advocates warn can also be used to stalk victims. Software such as ePhoneTracker and WebWatcher, for example, are advertised as ways to monitor kids’ online messages and track their location. For $349 a year, Flexispy of Wilmington, Del., promises to capture every Facebook message, email, text and photo sent from a phone, as well as record phone calls. These services generally would be legal only if the person installing the software also owned the device or were given consent by the owner.

Others identified on the FBI most wanted cyber list includes Alexsey Belan, a Russian, who allegedly broke into the computer networks of three major U.S. e-commerce companies. Belan is accused of stealing the companies’ user databases and encrypted passwords, which he then sold. Two others named by the FBI hijacked computers with malware disguised as online advertisements, then sold security fixes to victims. In one case, the loss to consumers was estimated to be $100 million.

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TAMPA, Fla. – A Tampa couple’s alleged year-long bank robbery spree that saw a spike in activity during a time of maternity leave and a lull during a period of employment has ended after crossing state lines.

An 18-page FBI affidavit released by the United State Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida on Friday accuses Immanuel Lee and Cara Lee Williams of a 15-bank robbing spree in central Florida and south Alabama.

The affidavit alleges that the Williamses, both 28, began their spree with a robbery of the Chase Bank at 4601 West Kennedy Boulevard in the Westshore area of Tampa on Dec. 5, 2012.

The robbery would establish a modus operandi by the couple that would help multiple agencies across Florida, Alabama and the FBI tie the robberies together, leading to the arrest of the couple this week.

“In each of the robberies, the black male wore long-sleeved shirts, a hat and/or a wig, and gloves and/or tape on his hands and fingers,” the affidavit reads.

According to the FBI, Immanuel Lee Williams carried out the actual robberies in all but the robbery of Trinity Bank in Dothan, Ala., on Nov. 4.

Dothan Police told ABC affiliate WDHN that witnesses described seeing a white female suspect who fled from the bank with an undisclosed amount of money after the robbery. The woman who robbed the bank was wearing thick-rimmed glasses and an apparent wig.

Throughout the spree, the couple allegedly used index cards with similar demands in similar writing.

A variation of a yellow index card with black block-style lettering with exclamation points and underlining was often used, but the note allegedly used by Immanuel Lee in the Aug. 22 robbery of the Edison National Bank in Ft. Myers was pink.

“The majority of the demand notes from the robberies have demanded the same denominations of US currency (100s, 50s and 20s),” the affidavit states. Some of the demand notes were left at a bank; some were not.

As the spree stretched into 2013, the couple allegedly continued to team up: Immanuel Lee robbed the banks; Cara Lee Williams waited in the getaway vehicle.

On two separate days in January and August, the FBI believes the couple hit two banks in one day.

On Jan. 9, a suspect walked into the Chase Bank at 10943 Causeway Boulevard in Brandon, notably wearing a “Poker Room” hat and long-sleeve dress shirt, and demanded money by giving the teller a handwritten note, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff’s investigators.

After fleeing the Brandon bank, HCSO officials said the same suspect entered the SunTrust Bank at 701 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Kr. Blvd. in Seffner less than an hour later, and fled with more money on foot.

The couple supposedly spaced out robberies for the rest of the year, until Aug. 28, when they hit the Bank of America at 300 Havendale Blvd. in Auburndale – the same bank the couple allegedly worked together to rob on Feb. 21 — before robbing the MidFlorida Credit Union at 300 Amersweet Way in Davenport just over an hour later.

According to the affidavit, investigators were able to obtain surveillance video from a nearby business in Davenport that recorded Immanuel Lee getting into a black sports utility vehicle, believed to be a Mercedes-Benz, following the second robbery that day.

Investigators sent a request to the Florida Dept. of Transportation’s Turnpike Authority for a review of surveillance video to see if a similar vehicle passed through an eastbound toll plaza on the Polk Parkway before the first robbery.

The FDOT found and sent images of a 2011 Mercedes-Benz GLK 350 that passed through the toll plaza roughly 11 minutes after the Auburndale bank was robbed, according to the affidavit. Investigators drove the route from the bank to the toll plaza and determined it took 11 minutes.

A vehicle registration check led investigators to Cara Lee Williams as registered owner of the vehicle, and also a white 2012 Ford Mustang that was registered under her maiden name.

Investigators went back and looked at surveillance video from a Ft. Myers bank robbery that was carried out six days before the Davenport and Auburndale robberies, and saw the suspect in the Edison National Bank robbery fled on foot before getting into a white Ford Mustang that was driven by a white female.

Investigators looked at public records and determined Cara Lee, the registered owner of both vehicles, was married to Immanuel Lee and they lived at a large Tampa apartment complex.

More than a month later, investigators said they obtained surveillance video from the apartment complex’s entrance that showed a black sports utility vehicle and a white vehicle enter approximately five minutes apart, and roughly 25 minutes after the MidFlorida Credit Union in Plant City had been robbed.

Plant City Police obtained surveillance video from a nearby residence that allegedly showed the suspect fleeing the bank and getting into the black sports utility vehicle.

Investigators claim that after some of the robberies, the suspect didn’t immediately flee to a getaway vehicle.

“This fact, coupled with witness reports and surveillance video showing a second person driving a getaway vehicle at some of the robberies suggests the involvement of an accomplice and communications with that person to coordinate a meeting point,” the affidavit states.

Investigators said they have taken latent print from the crime scenes, but admitted that none of the prints have matched those of Immanuel Lee Williams.

After finding cell phone numbers for the couple, investigators began going back to look at robberies and cross-reference cell service location data with phone companies to establish the locations of the phone over the past year.

The affidavit explains that investigators have allegedly been able to put the cell phones in close proximity to several of the bank robberies.

Following the Plant City bank robbery, law enforcement began monitoring the physical movement of the couple and investigators began to look into their history, according to the affidavit.

Agents were having trouble finding where the Williamses worked, but were able to determine that Cara Lee Williams received biweekly paychecks from a
business and received other sources of income to their bank accounts.

It was also determined that Immanuel Lee Williams began working as a part-time temporary employee at the United State Postal Service in March, but hadn’t work there since August – roughly the time between the two Auburndale bank robberies.

The FBI stated that the Williamses were followed on several occasions to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in east Tampa and subsequently learned that Immanuel Lee has what is referred to as a “player card” at the casino.

Investigators went back and looked at the dual robberies in Brandon and Seffner and claim the same hat seen in the video of the robberies was given to casino patrons who held the “player card” and gambled frequently.

As investigators reviewed Cara Lee’s work history, they began to piece together what they claim is a pattern of being absent from work when the bank robberies were taken place.

The affidavit states Cara Lee’s most recent employer was JPMorgan Chase Bank. On the first day of the bank robbery spree, Dec. 5, 2012, investigators said Cara Lee used a vacation day.

On Dec. 15, investigators believe Cara Lee gave birth to a child and didn’t return to work until Jan. 28.

During that time, the FBI believes the couple committed the Brandon and Seffner robberies, and robberies of the Chase Bank at 4820 S. Florida Ave. in Lakeland on Jan. 19, and the Chase Bank on Orange Blossom Trail in Orange Co. on Jan. 22.

VIDEO: Surveillance video of the 12/5 and 2/7 bank robberies in Tampa

After returning to work, the FBI said records show Cara Lee to unapproved sick days on the same days the Chase Bank at 2001 North Dale Mabry Hwy. in Tampa, Feb. 7, and the first time the Auburndale bank was robbed Feb. 21.

After allegedly robbing the Compass Bank at 2620 SW 19th Ave. Rd. in Ocala, and the Center State Bank at 114 W. Belt Ave. in Bushnell, on the same day, the couple dropped one of their children off at daycare and drove around on I-4 in the Brandon area Oct. 29.

Investigators said the couple was tracked getting on and off the interstate, passing and circling banks, before ultimately returning home without ever getting out of the vehicle.

At some point, investigators gained access to or placed a tracking device on the couple’s Mustang, after obtaining tracking warrants for both vehicles.

Since Nov. 2, investigators said the Mustang hadn’t moved from the couple’s garage, but they weren’t seen at the home Nov. 4 and 5.

On Nov. 4, the Dothan bank was robbed, according to police, in a similar way as the central Florida robberies, expect the while female was seen carrying out the robbery.

A note was given to the teller that allegedly read, “THIS IS A BANK ROBBERY. I HAVE A GUN SO BE QUIET & FAST & NO ONE GETS HURT! HAND ME ALL YOUR 20s, 100s, & 50s! BE FAST & NO ALARMS!”

Investigators believe Cara Lee was the white female suspect in the bank robbery.

On Nov. 6, agents again pulled cell phone location data from Verizon that showed the couple’s cell phones moved north from Tampa on the morning of Nov. 4 and were tracked to near the Dothan bank around the time of the robbery the same day.

The phone was tracked from Dothan to Panama City, Fla., and two days later, the Alabama Credit Union in Gulf Shores, Ala., was robbed, police told ABC affiliate WEAR.

The robbery style matched how the Williamses allegedly carried out their robberies, according to the affidavit: “A review of the surveillance photographs of the robbery revealed that the subject of this bank robbery matched the disguise and physical description as the previous 13 bank robberies that occurred in … Florida.”

A calculation by the FBI has determined that the suspects have stolen $54,740 during the spree, with their single biggest robbery of $9,880 during the Aug. 28 Davenport robbery.

Following the Gulf Shores robbery, the local police department said in a statement, that an arraignment was made with the assistance of FBI Mobile to arrest Immanuel Lee at the couple’s home in Tampa later the same day of the robbery.

The FBI said Immanuel Lee showed weapons in some robberies, but no one was ever injured.

Most of the surveillance videos that were shared with the public throughout the spree show him acting very calm, with other patrons in the banks oblivious to a robbery taking place.

The Williamses were arrested and booked into the Hillsborough County Jail on FBI holds for federal bank robbery. Both were officially charged with “conspiracy to obstruct, delay, or affect commerce by robbery and conspiracy to commit bank robbery.”

According to the US Attorney’s Office, they made first appearances before a US magistrate judge Friday.

A bond hearing for Cara Lee was set for Nov. 14. Immanuel Lee reserved bond and remains held. The couple has been transferred into federal custody.

Attempts to reach an FBI spokesperson for further details on the case have yet to be returned and attempts to reach relatives of the Williamses have not been successful.

This case was investigated by the FBI, Tampa Police, Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Auburndale Police, Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Ocala Police, Dothan Police and Gulf Shores Police.

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An 18-year-old’s “birthday party gone wild” turned deadly when gunfire erupted at her Cypress, Texas, home overnight, killing two and injuring nearly two dozen others who were trying to escape the crowded house, authorities said.

Harris County Sheriff’s investigators responded to a call about shots fired at the home at approximately 10:50 p.m. on Saturday, Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia said today in a news conference.

Upon arriving, law enforcement officials described a chaotic scene rife with teenagers trying to escape the suburban residence, Garcia said. More than 100 people were inside the small, two-story home when one suspect fired his gun “in apparent celebration.”

“Let me describe the event last night as a birthday party gone wild,” he said.

“[It was] just one of those inexplicable, crazy things when someone decides to pull a pistol and discharge it in the air, and someone else who thinks it’s important to carry a pistol to a birthday party decides to pull theirs,” Garcia said.

At least 18 people at the party sustained gunshot wounds in their chests, legs and even hands as a result of the shooting, Garcia said. At least one partygoer has a broken leg from trying to escape from the house.

Two Cypress Springs High School students died — one at the scene and another at a hospital. Their names have not been made public, but one of the victims was a 16-year-old girl with a birthday rapidly approaching, and the other was an 18-year-old boy, Garcia said.

Investigators are seeking two suspects. There is no evidence that the two alleged gunmen — a 17-year-old and a 22-year-old — were engaged in a confrontation or even came to the party together, Garcia said.

While authorities received information about several partygoers who may have been involved with local gangs, Garcia said it was not “the contributing factor” in the investigation.

The birthday celebration was being touted on social media, which Garcia said may have contributed to its violent outcome.

“Anytime that you promote a birthday party on social media, you have no control over who to expect at your door,” Garcia said. “What it does indicate is that you’re saying to the social media world, ‘I don’t know who you are, but you’re invited.’ That’s not a good practice.”

Garcia said neither alcohol nor drugs appeared to be a factor in the case, but there was a bouncer checking guests at the door.

The girl’s mother was at the home at the time of the party and subsequent shooting. Garcia would not address whether criminal charges would be filed against the woman. The investigation is ongoing, he said.
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