What's the Smell of Stupid?: Wanted Man's Cologne Tips Off Atlanta Police

Dec. 17, 2024

Atlanta police officers followed their noses when trying to find an armed robbery suspect, thanks to the man's cologne, which led them to his crawl space hiding spot.

By Simone Jasper

Source Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.)

A wanted man retreated into a dark crawl space, then officers smelled something, Georgia police said.

“I smell cologne,” one person can be heard saying in a profanity-laced video the Atlanta Police Department shared on Facebook.

It turns out, the scent of the man’s fragrance led police right to him, officers wrote in a Dec. 9 news release.

“You shouldn’t wear so much cologne, homie,” a person said after the nearly two-minute clip showed police catch up to the man.

Officers sniffed their way to the man in early December, as police reportedly tried to find two people sought in a Nov. 23 armed robbery. One of the wanted men, identified as 19-year-old Kortez Deshawn Ragland, was captured while walking down a street, police said.

Then officers found the other man, 24-year-old Kentraevious Hunter, in the crawl space. Police in their news release didn’t list attorney information for the men.

Ragland and Hunter are charged with armed robbery, gun possession, aggravated assault and obstruction. Both men were booked into the Fulton County jail, online records show.

While Ragland was in custody, he was charged with felony murder and other crimes in a past homicide case, police told McClatchy News in an email and wrote in a news release.

That case dates to Sept. 23, when police reported finding two people shot at an Atlanta grocery store. One of the men, 20-year-old Toddrick Lamar, died at the scene, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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