BALTIMORE — ATM thieves are trying to increase their quick-cash exploits.
They keep executing their smash-and-grab feats all over the city. These days, they’ve been performing them in front of a live audience: store staff.
Over the past four months, there have been at least 15 ATMs stolen from stores in the Baltimore area and several attempted thefts, according to authorities.
In the past, ATM thieves have driven vans and other vehicles into Baltimore’s convenience stores to gain access to the machines.
Video footage shows them dragging the machines out of the damaged stores and driving off with them.
Some residents say the tempo of the ATM thefts is indicative of police “just playing catch-up with the criminals.”
Recent thefts look a little different. People are walking into local businesses and removing the ATMs in front of store employees.
That’s what employees at the University Market and Deli were forced to do two weeks ago.
It was all captured on camera. The thieves arrived in a convertible. One of them got out to pry open the front door of the deli before breaking into the second door.
They then let a second person in to help them.
Once inside, they both ripped the ATM open and dragged it out of the front doors.
A third person met them outside and helped them put the ATM in the back of a convertible car with its top down.
They drove off in what police have described as a silver BMW.
Last month, a group of people walked into the Apache lounge—a liquor store in East Baltimore—and took its ATM.
A few weeks before that, a group of people ran off with the ATM that was inside Red Fish Liquors in Hampden.