From Pine View Farm

ATM Theft 2

In the course of my employment, I meet a lot of technicians who work on ATMs. Almost all of them have stories of abortive attempts to steal ATMs.

  • The fellow down in Carolinas who chained an island ATM to his bumper and tried to drive off with it. He left his bumper behind, along with his license plate.
  • The fellow in New Jersey who attempted to knock one over with his truck. My old boss actually got called to remove the tapes and review them with police. This was in New Jersey. New Jersey has front license plates.
  • The fellow who managed to get away with one, then discovered that the top, the vulnerable part, is a computer, but the bottom is a concrete-lined steel safe, so he buried it in his back yard–still intact.

These fellows tried an excavator (apparently an excator is sort of a front-end loader with a college education):

Thieves toiled for almost an hour with a stolen excavator to dig two cash machines out of a bank branch in the northeastern town of Kuala Terengganu Tuesday.

But they were forced to flee empty-handed when the excavator’s digging arm got stuck in the ceiling of the bank, Malaysian newspapers reported Wednesday.

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2 comments

  1. Karen

    August 17, 2006 at 11:26 am

    The first 2 of your examples were featured on a program running called “Video Justice”. The theives weren’t featured in the best light, as far as intelligence goes.

     
  2. Frank

    August 17, 2006 at 6:23 pm

    Yeah, well, it’s sort of the like fellow in this part of the world who burglarized and apartment a couple of winters ago.

    The cops followed his footprints in the snow back to his apartment.

    Remember, the smart ones don’t get caught.