News

ATM news of the weird: Truth is stranger than fiction

Just to keep our readers on their toes, we've compiled a list of some of the strangest ATM news to recently make headlines.

July 10, 2005

Most of us are drawn to the police blotter … and for good reason. After all, truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. Some crime headlines even leave us with smiles on our faces, wiping our brows and exhaling sighs of relief because we know most criminals are just as stupid as they look.

The following is a compilation of some interesting, funny and strange ATM stories. I hope one or two of them tickles a funny bone.

Bones in his closet:This guy must have gotten his holidays confused. Call me crazy, but I think a box of chocolates would have been more appropriate.

On Valentine's Day in Raleigh, N.C., a 25-year-old man wearing a skull mask and brandishing a handgun began a 12-day ATM holdup spree that abruptly ended, leaving police baffled. But about two months later in mid-April, the skeleton resurfaced. He walked into a Wachovia branch to hold it up and was arrested shortly after fleeing the scene. Police were able to link him to the ATM hold-ups through clothing, photos and other evidence found during a search of his home. The police never recovered the mask but did find a picture in the suspect's home of his young daughter wearing the mask.

In need of a chill pill: Life's too short to sweat the little stuff.

A Los Angeles man was critically injured and his wife and 2-year-old daughter were seriously hurt when a confrontation at an ATM led to a car chase that ended in a crash. According to a news report, around 9 p.m. one May evening Claudia Torres was waiting to use the ATM when the man in front of her, Jonathan Chacon, began yelling at her because he couldn't get his ATM card to work.

Torres returned to her family's Ford Explorer to leave, but Chacon followed. He initiated a car chase, speeding after the couple and their daughter, reportedly yelling at them through his driver's side window before the two cars collided.

Charge right in: I'm sure this heist wasn't as easy to pull off as it might have appeared.

A Fremont, Calif., burglar rammed a van into the front window of a gas station, unbolted the station's ATM and loaded it into his van, according to a local news report. The burglary happened just after 5 a.m., while the clerk was alone. Luckily, however, the whole thing was caught on tape by the store's surveillance camera.

Caught in the act:This guy should have stopped while he was ahead.

A Monterey, Calif., man who had stolen nearly $90,000 from nine ATMs between May 2004 and October 2004 was busted in late April when police caught him red-handed, cutting his way through the floor of a bank to get close to the rear of an ATM. Before the bank attempt, the thief targeted free-standing ATMs in tourist locations. To gain access to their vaults, he torched or pried them open.

ATM gets last, loudest laugh: This would-be robber learned that crime literally doesn't pay. A Moorhead, Minn., man was duped by an ATM he tried to steal after ramming a payloader through the front of the BP station where the ATM was located. The payloader, which local police said was stolen from a nearby construction site, damaged the ATM but didn't provide access to its vault.

Jaws attacks: Instead of prying a person out a car, jaws-of-life were used to pry open an ATM in a shopping center in Australia, where the thieves got away with a "very significant" amount of money, according to Aussie news report.

Surprisingly, the attack, which occurred just after midnight, didn't attract much attention and the thieves got away with an estimated $250,000.

Badge of dishonor: This guy should have known his crime spree would be short-lived.

East St. Louis police arrested a supermarket security guard after he used an ATM card left behind by a customer who also is a police detective. Police said the former security guard watched the detective closely enough to see his PIN, and when the detective rushed out of the store and left his card in the ATM, the thief retrieved it and withdrew money.

The detective noticed the additional transactions on his account later when he went to the bank and put two and two together.