Snellville Teen Believes Friend Set Him up for Robbery

A Snellville teen believes his friend may have set him up to be robbed while they were out smoking marijuana earlier this month.

According to Gwinnett County Police reports, two boys, 14 and 17, went to the open field across from 3391 Centerville Highway to smoke around 5 p.m. one Saturday.

The younger teen told police that they were sitting on a green electric box when "all of the sudden" a man came from behind them and struck him in the head with the butt-end of a gun, which he later noticed was fake. The man then began choking him so hard from behind that he passed out, the victim said.

He awoke shortly after and noticed his iPhone 4S, $160 jacket and $400 Beats by Dr. Dre headphones were missing. He remembered knocking the man's glasses out of his face in the altercation, but didn't recall much else since he was unconscious. He did see the man take his friend's cell phone before running away, though.

He and his friend split after the robbery and went to their separate homes. The younger teen called his mother, and authorities were notified.

The older boy seemed to take the situation less seriously. He told police that when his friend was being choked, he attempted to fight the suspect but was unsuccessful and ended up getting punched in the face. The teen told the man he could have all their stuff, so he took it and ran.

When the 17-year-old went home, he didn't call police, and instead went to another friend's house. He admitted to the officer that he went there to buy more marijuana.

Police noted in the report that his actions were strange. When the officer asked the boy why he didn't call police, the teen said his phone had been taken before, so he didn't think it was a big deal.

"He shrugged his shoulders and stated, 'It's cool,'" the officer wrote in the report.

The younger victim's mother spoke to police later that day after she saw her son's friend and the man he bought marijuana from after the robbery, walking down the street on her way home. Both of them were laughing and joking, she said.

She approached them and advised the other man to return her son's items. He told her that he didn't know what she was talking about, but he also told her to calm down and maybe the robbery wasn't as serious as she thought it was.

According to the teens, the suspect was wearing dark-colored Converse shoes, glasses, black pants, a black jacket and a black shirt. He used another shirt to mask his face. His fake gun was silver in color. 

Inside the Police Reports runs regularly every week. The information is based solely on police incident reports provided on request.