Athens juveniles arrested after using ruse of looking for work to commit home invasion

By Joe Johnson

Two Athens boys, one 12 and the other 13, were arrested last week after they reportedly entered a man's home on Reese Street in an attempt to rob him.

According to an Athens-Clarke County police report, the incident occurred the afternoon of Nov. 21 when a 42-year-old man was approached outside his residence in the the 900 block of Reese Street by two boys looking for work.

The man told the boys he had nothing for them to do, the police report noted, but said that he'd take their information and went inside the house, where both boys followed, drew what appeared to be Glock pistols and demanded the man's car keys while pointing the apparent weapons at the victim's head.

When the man reached for his keys on the other side of the open door, the report indicated he used the opportunity to slam the door shut and push the intruders out of his house.

The young offenders ran in an unknown direction but the area was quickly flooded with police units and the suspects were taken into custody in the parking lot of a University of Georgia annex building on North Milledge Avenue by a pair of UGPD officers, according to the ACCPD incident report.

When police contacted the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, they were advised to charge the boys with aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, loitering and prowling, and obstruction of law enforcement.

The report noted that when questioned by police, the boys winked at each other, with one falsely identifying himself, and they were subsequently separated.

One boy told officers where they could find a set of keys on Broadacres Court, the police report indicated, and two facsimile firearms were found in a backpack possessed by one of the boys, and two more were located along the path they took from Reese Street to North Milledge Avenue.

Both boys were transported to the juvenile unit of the Clarke County Detention Center, according to the police report.