Group of burglars steal ATM from Chicago Northwest Side liquor store
CHICAGO (CBS) — The ATM burglary spree continued early Wednesday morning—this time in the Northwest Side's Dunning neighborhood.
In a burglary that was caught on camera, the front of a small business destroyed by the crew that pulled the ATM from the store. The ATM had been bolted to the ground.
The theft happened just after 1 a.m. at the JT Food and Liquor in the 7500 block of West Irving Park Road.
CBS News Chicago brought the surveillance video to David Tente, president of the ATM Security Association.
"Putting an ATM in front of a glass window in a store is not a good idea," Tente said.
Tente said different placement of an ATM could protect other business owners.
"That that ATM goes to the back of the store, with at least one or two rows of shelves in between the ATM and the window, because it just makes it very, very difficult then for that type of attack to be successful," he said.
Tente said his group is tracking a rise in these crimes. With 55% to 60% of ATMs independently owned, like the one at JT Food and Liquor, it is a hit to businesses—on top of the thousands in out-of-pocket damage the owner of the store said the burglary caused.
"The crime rate has been going up every year," Tente said. "We're seeing about a 25% increase so far this year over last year."
Some states have laws on the books specifically on ATM thefts, though Tente has noted Illinois not one of them.
In May of last year, U.S. Reps. John Rose (R-Tennessee) and Glenn Ivey (D-Maryland) introduced the federal Safe Access to Cash Act—which is intended to fight crimes against or involving ATMs. The law would provide users, owners, and servicers of non-bank ATMs the same federal protections afforded to bank-owned ATMs.
"That, we think, will be a very big deterrent if suddenly it's a felony on the federal level," said Tente. "We think crooks will have second thoughts on doing this again."
As of late Wednesday, no arrests had been made in the latest ATM theft incident on the Northwest Side.
CBS News Chicago has been checking in with Chicago Police, who said Grand Central Area detectives are still investigating.