Over the last few weeks, two men have tried four times to lasso an ATM with a chain and drag it away with a pickup truck, sheriff’s officials said. Each time, they’ve come up empty-handed.
GRAND TERRACE, CA - "We have not found that they’ve succeeded," said sheriff’s Sgt. Edward Finneran. "They’ve all been failures."
Despite the would-be wranglers’ lack of success, deputies are searching for them.
In the most recent attempt, at 6 a.m. Friday, video surveillance caught one of the men walking into a convenience store and throwing a chain around a free-standing ATM, officials said.
A video shows one end of the chain was connected to a slow-moving, white, 1997 to 2003 Ford crew cab pickup that accelerated through the parking lot, officials said.
But the chain failed to latch. A clerk chased the man to the door, but he escaped and the pickup sped off south on Michigan Avenue, officials said.
While reviewing the tape, authorities identified the truck as the same one used in a handful of attempted ATM thefts in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, officials said.
"They had an ATM stolen from the temporary Halloween (pumpkin patch) at Waterman Avenue and Hospitality Lane. It was found in Grand Terrace," Finneran said.
That ATM was stolen early Wednesday. There is no evidence that the men involved in last week’s attempt were involved in Wednesday’s theft, but both cases show how vulnerable free-standing ATMs are, said.
If the theft Wednesday involved the same men, they have to count it as another failure since the ATM had been emptied of its cash before it was stolen, he said.
In another attempted ATM theft, a business was damaged. Finneran did not have the details of the incident, but said that someone managed to get the chain around the machine.
"The pickup did not have enough power to pull the machine and the bolts up," he said.
Instead, it whipped the machine around, causing damage to the building, Finneran added. No one was hurt in the incident, but officials want to catch the culprits before someone is harmed.
They are working a few leads, Finneran said. He did not have a description of the suspects, but officials have released a photo of the vehicle they believe is involved.
Freestanding ATM being serviced.