News

Weirdest ATM news of 2003

Editor Ann All presents her annual wrap-up of the weirdest ATM stories of the year. In most of them, crime doesn't pay.

December 29, 2003

As the editor of ATMmarketplace, part of my daily duties include searching the news wires for relevant stories of ATM interest to post on the site.

Ann All

It's disheartening how many crime stories I encounter. In fact, I don't bother posting most of them because they are too numerous. I generally feature only stories in which damages are unusually large, there seems to be a pattern of criminal activity, or circumstances are just too strange to ignore.

A guilty secret: I kind of enjoy the "strange circumstances" stories.

My favorite from 2003? A toss-up between the Pittsburgh snow plow driver who thought he could slip away unnoticed after taking out an ATM in his eight-ton truck and the Grants Pass, Ore., thieves who were nabbed by police calling them on an accomplice's radio.

And now, without further ado, my annual wrap-up of some of the weirdest ATM stories of the year:

Oh, the tangled tales: Krongsit Kamsuangjik, a Thai cash courier who took 11.5 million baht (about $267,000 U.S.) during his replenishment route, said he stole his employer's money because the firm was mean to its staff.

According to a report in the Bangkok Post, police on Jan. 2 found the 30-year-old, an employee of Siam Administrative Management Co., hiding on the roof of his home with 2.5 million baht (about $58,417) of the missing money.

Krongsit took off with the cash, leaving 42 million baht (about $975,400) in the van, during a routine cash replenishment call, driving off after several other couriers who were working with him left the vehicle. Krongsit said he had made copies of the keys to the van's safe.

Also arrested were Krongsit's brothers, 33-year-old Chamlong Kamsuangjik and 37-year-old Boonlert Kamsuangjik.

Chamlong denied involvement in the theft itself, but did admit he conspired with another suspect, Sawai Kongrub, to insert a card covered with glue into an ATM along the route. When Krongsit's coworkers left the van to fix it, Krongsit fled.

Krongsit said he had planned the theft for a month because the firm had refused to give employees a pay rise or a bonus for two years. He had told colleagues to expect "something to happen" if their pay did not increase.

After driving off with the cash, he abandoned the van in Bangkok's outskirts and fled with the money. Krongsit said he did not take all of the cash as he did not commit the crime for the money alone.

"If I'd had a lighter with me I would have burnt the cash right then and there," he said in the Post report.

The tale got stranger when Sawai, the heist's suspected mastermind, gave himself up on Jan. 7 and led police to a bonfire site near Bangkok. There police found the charred remains of bank notes worth 1 million baht (about $24,000 U.S.) Sawai claimed to have set fire to the rest of the loot, saying he wanted to keep himself warm.

Police suspected the story was a ploy to hide the bulk of the stolen cash -- more than 5 million baht (about $117,000) -- since the lowest night temperature in north-eastern Thailand during the week of the heist was 16 degrees Celsius (about 60 degrees Fahrenheit).

Mek Praseeratasang, a brother-in-law of Sawai, on Jan. 8 contacted police and returned almost one million baht ($24,000) of the loot which Sawai had asked him to keep.

He told police that the suspect had visited him early on Jan. 6 and asked him to keep a bagful of cash. Mek said he felt it was none of his business to ask how Sawai had acquired the money. He learned how it was acquired following news reports on Sawai's arrest, he said.

Sawai allegedly told the authorities that he had left one million baht with Mek. However, Mek denied any knowledge of the missing 100,000 baht ($2,337), saying he had neither checked the money nor used it.
 
Not-so-anonymous crime: Coventry Building Society ATMs in January spewed out more than £850,000 (about $1.3 million U.S.) in five days to UK customers who were able to obtain any amount they liked by using any PIN. The false dispenses were apparently caused by a software error after a security upgrade.

According to a report in The Guardian, queues formed at the building society's 54 machines, with many customers returning 20 times before managers discovered the problem. One couple pocketed £134,410 ($215,776). When police raided the family home in Foleshill they found a new car and air tickets to Jamaica.

Jubert Crosdale, 47, a painter decorator, and his 20-year-old daughter, Charlene Crosdale, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal, and were each sentenced to 15 months at Coventry crown court.

Jubert's wife, Catherine, 45, admitted conspiracy to steal and had her sentence adjourned for a report on her health, while their son Leroy, 22, received a 12-month sentence.

Twelve people appeared in court charged with conspiracy to steal a total of £285,000 ($457,535), according to the Guardian.

The defendants were traced through a mixture of electronic records and video footage.

Alarming trend: Japanese financial institutions, ripped off repeatedly by thieves who use stolen construction equipment to carry off ATMs, in January began outfitting their ATMs with sirens and lights designed to go off when jolted.

According to the Asahinews service, the alarms wail nonstop for 10 hours. The theory is, that even the thieves bold enough to make off with an ATM will leave a trail of sound for police to follow. Disabling the sirens on the spot takes time.

"If the thieves try to smash the siren, it will take them longer (to steal ATMs)," said an official of Ome Shinkin Bank, which in January began equipping exterior ATMs with sirens.

Making the systems even more attractive is the fact that they cost relatively little to install, the official added. The bank purchased 25 systems, developed by siren maker Majima Co., for 28,000 yen (about $235 U.S.) each.

The bank, the first to purchase the sirens, displays notices that the ATMs are equipped with a crime-prevention system.

The use of backhoes and other equipment stolen from construction sites to break into or cart off ATMs is becoming increasingly common in Japan. According to the National Police Agency, there were 57 cases of such ATM thefts nationwide in 2002, up from nine incidents in 2001. In all, the thieves got away with 335 million yen (about $2.8 million) in cash in 2002.

In December, Secom Co., the nation's largest security company, began marketing a system to scare away thieves with booming noises and powerful lights.

The system's sensor is designed to recognize certain features of construction equipment. When it detects equipment like this approaching an ATM, it begins to emit a loud noise and switches on lights "too blinding for someone to control the equipment," according to a Secom official.

Secom received inquiries from financial institutions and expected demand to rise. Majima said it has also received inquiries from more than 10 institutions.

Hey baby, what's your balance? Those who think their pick-up lines might work better if they were backed up with a stronger line of cash can now test that theory. Thanks to Pullmyfinger.com, a Web site that sells novelty items, would-be Lotharios can hand out their phone number on fake ATM receipts that show a whopping account balance of $314,159.26.

The "ATM-itations" look like the real thing and sell for $3.95 for a pad of 24 slips. "After seeing your balance, you'll make a deposit into her account in no time," boasts the site, which also suggests that the slips can be used to impress friends, Porsche salesmen and others.

ATM-itations are promoted on the Pullmyfinger.com Web site as a way to impress the opposite sex.

Among the other items sold on the six-year-old Pullmyfinger.com site are Super Fart Spray, Fanny Floss and a line of farting dolls. "Flatulence is where it all began," said site owner Richard Halpern.

Halpern said the inspiration for ATM-itations came from a talk radio show during which several women mentioned the importance of a new guy having money. One male caller confessed that he gave women his phone number on ATM receipts that he pulled from trash containers.

In a photo on the Web site, an attractive young blonde is accepting a receipt from a smarmy-looking guy (played by Halpern himself, outfitted with prop chain and sunglasses).

Halpern said he believed that the fake receipts would most likely be used as gag gifts for bachelor parties, graduations and other events. However, he said, "There are probably a few people out there who will actually use these to try to meet people."

Some may catch on to the gag -- tipped off by the issuing bank, Fidelity National Bank & Savings or FNBS, or less obviously, by the fact that the account balance is the first eight digits of Pi.

Calling all idiots: Grants Pass, Ore., police used a suspected burglar's radio to nab him and two other suspects during a theft attempt on Jan. 20.

At 4:13 a.m., police received a report of a suspicious person with a radio, according to a report in the (Grants Pass) Daily Courier. Police detained the man, 37-year-old Jimmy Dale Houston and, posing as him in a conversation on his two-way radio, determined that a burglary was in progress at a nearby tavern.

After surrounding the building, police used the radio to tell both suspects to come out with their hands up. The burglars had broken into a safe and an ATM inside the tavern.

Tom Pepple, president of Medford, Ore.-based Retail Profit Systems, Inc., the E*Trade distributor that installed the ATM, said that the men destroyed the machine while trying to pry open the safe -- which contained just $100.

"I'm the ISO and tech who had the pleasure of finishing their job. They tried to pry open the safe so they tweaked the cabinet to a point where we had to saw it open to retrieve the $100," Pepple wrote ATMmarketplace in an e-mail. "Had I been on the clock, I would have charged (the owners) $150 in labor and travel, but I'm a nice guy and did it for free. I installed a loaner while they make an insurance claim and we get them a new ATM."

Houston was arrested on a second-degree charge of burglary, first-degree charges of criminal mischief and attempted theft, and other charges of conspiracy and violating probation. Also arrested were 20-year-old David Wesley Jones and 19-year-old Matthew Adam Jefferson, who face similar charges.

Unbelievably, Grants Pass police on Dec. 30 had used another suspected burglar's radio to fool two accomplices trying to break into a military surplus store, according to the Daily Courier.

Smile, you're busted (again): Sean Redner, 22, was ordered to pay $317 in fine and court costs after vandalizing a Citizens Bank ATM on Jan. 1. He was apprehended after two bank security photos showing him kicking the ATM and causing about $400 in damage appeared in the Pocono (Pa.) Record.

But that wasn't the end of it. The victim and a witness to a Jan. 2 robbery at a Western Union store saw the photos and fingered Redner for that crime.

Redner went on trial for felony robbery on Sept. 8 for the Western Union theft. During the trial, he admitted trashing the ATM after drinking a quart of liquor, according to a report in the Record. He testified he beat and kicked the machine on a whim.

Kettly Turnbull, the alleged victim, testified that Redner tried to grab $1,200 in cash she was sending to a bank for her mortgage. She said he reached over her shoulders with both arms and tried to twist the cash out of her grip. But Turnbull held on to her money and fought him off.

Redner dragged her out onto the street where the fight continued. Bills flew everywhere, witnesses testified, as Turnbull, who broke her finger during the struggle, resisted Redner.

Turnbull testified that she grabbed Redner's sweatshirt and shirt, but he wriggled out of them and ran away naked to the waist on the freezing afternoon.

Turnbull spied Redner's mug when police asked the Record to print the ATM security camera photos in an effort to identify the vandal. "Oh, my God, it's him," Turnbull said she shouted when she saw the Jan. 9 edition of the paper.

Dorothy Eilber, proprietor of the Western Union office where the robbery occurred, also recognized Redner from the newspaper photos. Eilber testified that Redner had been in the Western Union office a month before to pick up money sent by his mother in Michigan.

In the end, Redner got only $200 of Turnbull's mortgage money, according to the Record.

Daring, yet dumb, getaway: A Pittsburgh, Pa., Department of Public Works snow plow driver returned to the job after allegedly plowing into an ATM and trying to hide it from police -- despite leaving behind a trail of evidence that included parts of his plow and a pile of salt.

According to Pittsburgh's WTAE, National City employees found the ATM destroyed when they reported to work on Feb. 5.
 
Within hours, police pinned it on Public Works employee Bill Staude.

Authorities say when Staude came through the area, his eight-ton combination salt truck and plow took out a canopy and demolished the ATM. In his haste to get out, he allegedly ran over some shrubs and then went down a lawn, back out onto the street.

Police were able to solve the case pretty quickly when they found a piece of Staude's truck lying on the street, along with a pile of salt.

According to the police report, Staude told his supervisor he was sick and went home shortly after hitting the ATM. Police caught up with him 12 hours later. Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Bill Joyce told WTAE that Staude admitted taking out the ATM.

The matter was being handled internally, and no charges were filed, Joyce said. Staude was suspended for five days.
 
ATM damage estimates ranged from $20,000 to $30,000.

The bigger they are: Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe, lost a wallet containing his ATM card. Within hours, someone illegally withdrew $4,200 from his account.
 
According to an Associated Press report, the wallet fell out of Uribe's jacket on May 9 while he visited Bucaramanga, 200 miles southeast of Bogota. The wallet also contained his ATM password.

By the next day, $4,200 had been taken from his account. The fraud was discovered after the issuing bank called the president's office to ask about the high number of withdrawals.

Authorities captured two suspects on May 12 and said they recovered the cash, according to the AP.

Use bolts next time: Police and the FBI on May 28 were trying to identify suspects who stole a 1,000-pound ATM from the lobby of Century Theatres at BayFair Mall in San Leandro, Calif.

The theft was reported on May 27 by the general manager of the movie theater complex, according to a report in the Oakland Tribune.

Detective Joe Molettieri said that police believe at least two burglars entered the theater during the early-morning hours, unplugged the freestanding Bank of America ATM, dragged it out through the front doors of the theater and loaded it into a waiting vehicle.

The ATM was not bolted to the floor or otherwise secured, according to the Tribune.

The ATM left gouges in the lobby's tile floor and for about 10 feet beyond the entryway where the thieves dragged it. Investigators believe at least two people were involved in the heist because of the size and weight of the machine.

Guilty -- but creative: Jurors in Easton, Pa., didn't buy a former Exxon gas station manager's alibi that he took money from the station's ATM and put it into the cash register because of concerns over losing his job.

Eric Hess, 25, was found guilty on June 4 of pocketing more than $100,000 from the ATM between August 1999 and April 2001, according to a report in the Express-Times.

Jurors determined Hess took more than $100,000, which was the largest amount out of a series of ranges presented to the panel. Prosecutors argued Hess that actually took as much as $180,000.

Hess' attorney, Anthony Martino, said Hess was supposed to take funds from the cash register to stock the ATM. Martino said Hess took the money from the ATM and put it back in the cash register because he was under pressure from his supervisor to boost revenues at the store.

Yet Assistant District Attorney Roy A. Manwaring II called the defense "laughable." He pointed out that Hess lied to his employer for months about bogus sales he was ringing up using the ATM funds to make it appear the store was making more money than it was.

"The whole premise of his defense is based on a lie," Manwaring told the jury during his closing argument. "If he lied to his employer for 20 months, why should you believe him?"

Prosecutors said Hess spent $30,000 on jewelry and $9,000 on flowers.

Hess' family members testified they asked him to buy jewelry for them to conceal the gift purchases from their spouses. The family members said they reimbursed Hess for the purchases. Hess said he used his life savings of between $15,000 and $20,000 to buy jewelry for girlfriends. Hess said he saved large amounts of cash by living at home.

Martino told jurors Hess' "foolish" decision to blow his life savings on girlfriends and his unusual practice of keeping his savings in a cash lockbox under his bed should not be held against him. Martino said there was no direct evidence linking Hess to the theft, only circumstances.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 8.

Slim chance of success: An attempted ATM theft in Naperville, Ill, was scotched due to gravity.

According to a report in the Chicago Daily Herald, Naperville police believe a man and a woman lurked in the main lobby of Edward Hospital on Sept. 24 until they managed to cut the ATM's electrical cord.

The apparent plan was to whisk the machine away. Hospital security officers found a dolly in the lobby that wasn't supposed to be there and a piece of the ATM lying on a toilet in a locked washroom stall.

The couple left the hospital in a rented van, officials said.

Police believe the slender physique of the would-be thieves probably foiled the scheme. The man was described as being 6-feet-2 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds. The woman was 5-feet-5 inches tall and weighed about 130 pounds.

"I don't think they knew how heavy an ATM machine can be," said Naperville police Sgt. Joel Trumper in the Daily Herald report. "If they were both 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 250 pounds, maybe they could have tried."
   
With friends like these: Police had surprisingly little trouble tracking down a Somerville, Mass., man arrested on Nov. 11 for stalking and sticking up five ATM customers in Cambridge, Mass.

According to a report in the Boston Herald, more than 100 people called police in one night to rat him out.

"He wasn't popular," Cambridge police spokesman Frank Pasquarello said of Richard McCabe, 38, who'll be arraigned on five counts of armed robbery.

McCabe, a sometimes laborer, was pinched at 2:10 p.m. at an East Cambridge apartment after friends, enemies and co-workers flooded police with tips following Nov. 10 television broadcasts that included his photograph and details of his alleged crime spree.

"Many of the calls that we received, people knew him personally from dealing with him in the past," said Cambridge police Sgt. Detective Pauline Carter-Wells. "They were actually quite eager to come forward and tell us who he was. Ninety percent of the calls identified Richard McCabe as the man in the picture."

Carter-Wells said investigators have bank-security photos of McCabe from four of his five alleged holdups. She declined to say how much money McCabe is alleged to have stolen and whether the cash was recovered.

Investigators released few details about McCabe or the robberies, which he's alleged to have committed at knifepoint in East Cambridge and Kendall Square between the hours of 7 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. between Oct. 29 and Nov. 10, according to the Herald report.

McCabe allegedly robbed customers of cash -- but not their ATM cards -- at two Citizens Bank branches. He's also charged with hitting a Fleet Bank ATM three different times.

None of his alleged victims were harmed.