EAST ATLANTA — A teen allegedly trying to break into cars near a church parking lot early Friday, had a come-to-Jesus-meeting instead with the Atlanta police officer who arrested him.
According to Atlanta Police Department spokeswoman Kim Jones, a sergeant on morning patrol saw two people pulling on door handles of cars parked in the lot of of a property adjacent to the Temple of Faith Church of God in Christ in the 1500 block of Glenwood Avenue.
The incident occurred at about 3:30 a.m.
The officer turned off his lights so they wouldn't immediately see him and went around the church parking lot to find them.
One of them had already left but the other person stayed behind, according to the police report.
"The suspect, Calvin Wright, admitted what he was doing and that he knew it was wrong," Jones wrote in an e-mail statement.
Wright, 17, is charged with Unauthorized Interference with a Parked Vehicle in an attempt to gain entry and sent to the city jail, she said.
The arrest comes as APD has stepped up patrols in East Atlanta and other southeast Atlanta neighborhoods following a spike in auto break ins.
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