Burglars targeting Buckhead homes for silver

Police are warning Buckhead residents about a rash of break-ins in which sophisticated thieves have targeted homes for silver.

The thieves have been breaking doors of homes in a neighbor located just three minutes from Phipps Plaza on the Peachtree Dunwoody corridor.

North Buckhead residents said that three burglaries occurred on the same day in late January. Before that, an estate near the governor's mansion was struck during the holidays by a so-called cat burglar. He cut a pane window to French doors and got inside of the estate while the family was asleep upstairs.

Gallery 63 auctioneer Paul Brown said that silver can be valuable.  

"The thing about thieves, I wish they would use some of their smarts to engage in more worthwhile pursuits, but unfortunately they know the difference between sterling and silver plate. Sterling is 92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent some other metal. So that means that they can take it to a gold or silver refinery. They melt it down, they'll get 92 percent silver value. Silver today is $31 an ounce. That's a lot. You talk about getting a set of silverware, that's a lot of money," Brown said.

Sources told FOX 5's Morse Diggs that neighbors saw a silver Infinity driving in the area but didn't notify authorities until it was too late.

Police say that there is more than one operation underway.