Police believe recent burglaries are connected

Investigators say the burglars who broke into a Georgia Power safe on New Year's Eve are responsible for more crimes in the metro Atlanta area.

Police said the burglars used a tool to pry off a lock and entered a Goodwill store in Fayetteville. They then cut their way into the Georgia Power office, which was adjacent to the Goodwill store. Authorities believe the men made off with cash after drilling into a safe in the office. That burglary took three hours, according to police.

Coweta County investigators believe the same suspects may be responsible for a burglary at a Frazier's gas station. In that incident, the burglars used tools to break into the store and steal gas from a safe and an ATM machine as well as $30,000 in cigarettes.

"It's evident through the surveillance footage that we have that they're orchestrated, that this is not their first go-around. This is something that they've done before and they've been successful at," Ryan Foles of the Coweta County Sheriff's Office.

The burglars disabled security systems and were careful to reposition security cameras that might have been watching them.

"These guys cut in the exact spot. They use the minimum amount of cuts for precise time management in order to get into that safe and remove those bags of money efficiently," said Foles.

Law enforcement from Coweta County, Fayetteville, Fayette County, Douglasville, Douglas County and Marietta are all involved in the task force searching for the suspects.  

"We knew from the evidence from our Georgia Power burglary that this was a professional crew. But again, you learn just how professional they are by seeing some of these other videos and looking at some of the other evidence that other jurisdictions have," said Det. Mike Whitlow of the Fayetteville Police Department.

Other departments are also interested, including La Grange and West Point.

Anyone with information on the cases is urged to call 911.