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More strange-but-true ATM news

Recent strange-but-true ATM-related news includes an incompetent forklift operator, Japanese thieves who tunneled their way to the money and a fat lady who wasn't singing after a failed theft attempt.

August 15, 2004

Following are some of the strangest items recently encountered by this editor during her daily searches for ATM-related news. ATMmarketplace collects these odd stories and publishes them on a regular basis in hopes of tickling our readers' funny bones. For more of the same, seeUnlucky in ATM crime andStrange-but-true ATM news.

Heavy lifting: A would-be thief in Australia discovered an ATM was too hefty for the old heave-ho.

According to a Southland Times report, police discovered an ATM at Glengarry, in Invercargill, impaled by a stolen forklift on May 8 after an unsuccessful raid.

Acting Sergeant Chris Lucy, of Invercargill, said police were unsure why the robber or robbers had abandoned the attempt at removing the Westpac ATM.

"It appears to be incompetent use of a forklift," Lucy said in the Times' report of the incident.

It was possible the forklift had become stuck on the curb, forcing the offenders to flee, Lucy said. While the forklift blades had pierced the machine, Lucy did not believe it had actually been lifted.

The orange forklift, which has been stolen from a nearby business, was still running and parked about 12 feet from the ATM when it was noticed by a passerby and reported to police about 4 a.m.

Lucy said he had never heard of such a thing happening in Invercargill. "You hear about this sort of thing happening in Auckland but not here."

Hot diggedy ATM: Thieves in Hasaki, Japan excavated their way into a post office on May 24 and carted away an ATM inside that was loaded with more than $200,000.

According to a Mainichi Daily News report, police responding to a security alarm found the entrance to the post office destroyed by the digging. An excavator had been abandoned at the scene, but the ATM was gone.

Plus-sized pilfer: The fat lady didn't sing in Times Square -- she pulled a gun.

According to a New York Daily News report, a 250-pound woman in a floral dress attempted to rob a Long Island man at a Citibank ATM in the Theater District on June 1 by shoving him aside as soon as he punched in his PIN.

But police said the 40-year-old man, Thomas Citera, hit the "cancel" button, forcing the woman and a male partner to flee empty-handed. The incident was captured on tape by a Channel 11 news crew in the area to cover another story.

Life imitates art: On Aug. 9, someone re-enacted the opening scene of the 2002 film "Barbershop," in which a pair of not-so-bright criminals haul an empty ATM out of a store and drag it along behind a black truck.

According to a report in The Missoulian, thieves broke into Dale's Dairy in Missoula, Mont., hooked a chain to the ATM inside and drove off.

Unlike the movie, however, where the criminals successfully make off with the machine, the real-life crime ended quickly when the ATM burst free of the chain and rolled off the road as the getaway car turned onto a nearby street.

The incident began sometime before 3:30 a.m. when the motion alarm at Dale's Dairy went off. Missoula County Sheriff's Lt. Rich Maricelli said someone had smashed a glass door at the business and looped a chain around the ATM, which belongs to the Missoula Federal Credit Union.

"They then dragged it right out the door and broke the hinges off that door," Maricelli said. "Some cars on South Avenue saw them when they turned there off Clements."

After losing the ATM, the would-be thieves sped away in a Chevrolet Suburban which had been stolen earlier from Jim's Used Cars. The stolen vehicle was later found nearby.

The sheriff's department has no suspects in the attempted heist.