CHICAGO -- After police arrested a trio of suspected thieves who nabbed more than $1 million from 70 ATMs in the past year-and-a-half, the men confessed and one even showed authorities how it was done by performing in a videotaped re-enactment of the heists, according to a Chicago Sun Times report.
According to the report, 24-year-old James Gallas, the apparent leader of the group, also offered his services to police as a security consultant once his legal troubles were over.
Gallas was arrested July 1 and is believed to have cut into the machines using a welding tool, said Sgt. Anthony DeLeonardis, one of the leaders of an investigation that involved more than 100 officers and detectives. Gallas is charged with seven counts of burglary and with aggravated vehicular hijacking on an unrelated arrest warrant.
Gallas told police that he squandered most of his loot at the gaming tables of local casinos.
Richard Joe Green, 27, was arrested on July 5. He was Gallas' partner in most of the thefts, serving as a getaway driver and lookout, according to police.
Another alleged accomplice, 27-year-old Montero Alberto, was involved in only a few of the heists, police said. He is charged with burglary.
Investigators pursued hundreds of leads, ruling out Eastern European organized-crime members who have a history of such thefts, as well as other people known to be familiar with safes, alarm systems and welding.
"We talked to every informant we have," said Michael Chasen of Area 3 detective headquarters.
A confidential source gave police the break they needed. Surveillance and other sources confirmed that the crew was responsible.
Police said they linked the thefts because of a telltale "signature" the crew's burning tool made on the ATMs. The cuts were the same and the "slag" from the burned metal contained the same chemicals. At first the men used a saw to cut into ATMs, but soon switched to the burning method to finish the job quicker.
Unlike other ATM thieves, they never made off with an entire machine. Instead, Gallas allegedly used pry tools to break into a business where an ATM was housed -- wearing a mask to hide his identity -- and cut into the machine with the tool.
At first, the jobs took about an hour. But Gallas said he eventually could do it in 15 to 20 minutes, "depending on how nervous he was," DeLeonardis said.
The getaway driver, usually Green, would sit nearby in a stolen car, listening to a police scanner and watching for officers, police said.
The men stole from ATMs in bars, restaurants, bank kiosks, groceries and other businesses in Chicago and northwest suburbs such as Lincolnwood, Lindenhurst, Schaumburg and Algonquin, as well as in Indiana and Wisconsin, police said.
The first known heist was Jan. 14, 2000, and the last was June 27, 2002.
DeLeonardis said police plan to search the Chicago River for abandoned cash cassettes that the men allegedly tossed in the river.
