Vacant homes looted
Atlanta police officers Brian Ernest (front) and Bernett Collins, with guns drawn, prepare to enter a vacant house in The Bluff neighborhood just west of the Georgia Dome. The pair have been assigned to watching over the large number of vacant homes that attract copper thieves in APD's Zone 1. Ernest estimates that more than 50 percent of the homes in the neighborhood are empty, caused in part by the recent mortgage crisis. RICH ADDICKS/AJC
