ATLANTA - SouthTrust Corp. is mad at the culprits who used construction equipment to smash three of its Atlanta-area ATMs.
The Birmingham, Ala.-based bank is hoping to get even -- by offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of suspects involved in the high-profile theft attempts.
"In my three years here, we've never offered a reward for an ATM theft," spokeswoman Nannette Sheaffer told the Birmingham Business Journal, "(but) we've never had anything like this happen."
Perpetrators used a forklift and two backhoes to lift the machines from SouthTrust Bank drive-through ATM lanes in Alpharetta, Conyers and Norcross, Ga., over the past month. Their efforts were only successful in one instance; authorities later found the ATM and recovered the cash inside.
Sheaffer says the expense of replacing the damaged ATMs led SouthTrust to offer the money. She advises anyone with information to call the FBI, which is investigating similar incidents involving other banks' ATMs.
According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report, there have been six attempts in recent months to steal ATMs using heavy equipment. In the most recent incident, someone used a forklift to lift an ATM from its base at a Mountain National Bank branch in Gwinnett County.
The heist, at about 1 a.m.on July 17, came just two days after someone driving a backhoe dragged an ATM from a SouthTrust branch in Norcross.
The forklift operator simply lifted the machine, drove it a couple of blocks and apparently transferred it to a waiting vehicle, said Gwinnett police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Serelis.
In the July 15 incident, the thief came away empty handed, but the backhoe caused collateral damage.
(See related story Construction equipment used to steal 3 ATMs in 2 weeks in Atlanta area)
