SYDNEY -- Two hapless thieves were forced to abandon a stolen ATM when the cash inside became hot enough to literally burst into flames.
According to a police report in the Daily Telegraph, two people apparently drove a stolen truck through the window of a service station on a quiet street in Penrith, a suburb of Sydney, at about 4 a.m..
Their apparent plan was to drag the cash machine free of its mountings and help themselves to the cash inside. They attached chains to the ATM and dragged it from the building and down the road.
With sparks flying as the metal safe scraped along the road, the thieves drove through four suburbs, fleeing the scene of the crime.
The heat generated by the friction caused the ATM to catch fire.
"The joke is on the offenders, because the cash all went up in flames," Inspector Bruce Ritchie from Penrith police told the Telegraph.
Police, contacted by an alert citizen who witnessed the truck dragging the ATM, followed the gouges left in the road for several miles. They found the ATM – still ablaze and attached to the truck. The thieves were nowhere in sight.
Fingerprints were taken from the truck and the ATM was taken to Penrith station to be assessed by forensics.
Detectives hope footage from surveillance cameras at the service station will identify the offenders, who are suspected of at least three other similar robberies in the area.
