ATM thieves appear to be becoming both more brazen – and perhaps cleverer. According to local press reports, two thieves dressed as service personnel wheeled an ATM out of San Jose’s Children’s Discovery Museum on a dolly.
The busy Saturday, Sept. 7, theft wasn’t noticed until the following Tuesday. The machine was recently recovered from the side of Highway 101 in Monterey – without its cash, of course.
Although the far less subtle so-called “crash and grab” or “ram raids” in which thieves crash a stolen car through a front window or side wall remain the more popular form of ATM theft in many parts of the country, there has been an uptick in the craftier thefts.
Last month, an ATM was stolen from a medical facility in which the thief disguised the unit with a cardboard box and wheeling it out the front door. In both cases, additional mounting to the wall or floor might have at the very least provided a deterrent to the thieves.