'It's A Product Of The Times Really, People Are Getting More & More Desperate': 2 Attempted ATM Thefts Reported Friday
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- City police are investigating two brazen attempts to steal an ATM. It's all part of a recent string of similar crimes all over the city and county.
"Early in the morning around, 3:28 a.m., I was driving on Eastern Avenue," said one resident. "I saw the van just blasting through the window like the front door of the Walgreens."
One man, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he saw thieves driving into a Walgreens off Eastern Avenue last Monday and taking the ATM.
"I saw three guys coming out. Straight through the front door," he said.
It's just one in a string of ATM robberies, some successful, some are not.
"Nothing was stolen, thank God," said Thomas Meyer.
Thomas Meyer works at the Marathon Gas Station in East Baltimore and called police Friday after noticing the ATM had been tampered with.
Overnight, suspects tried to take it but in the end, left the machine behind.
They were trying to bust it out with a pry bar and realized there's this actual like big unit in there," Meyer explained.
In a separate incident Friday, suspects tried to take an ATM from a liquor store off Harford Road.
Police believe they recovered the white Ford van used in this attempted robbery along with a separate ATM inside, but the suspects got away.
"It's a product of the times really," said Rick. "People are getting more and more desperate."
City police say many of the vehicles used in these robberies are stolen making it harder to catch the suspect, but thanks to an initiative created last year focused on preventing robberies, ATM thefts have dropped.
"We were able to decrease 58 percent this year. We have 29 versus last year we have 70 for the whole year," said Commissioner Michael Harrison.
Police say they are reviewing surveillance video but the attendant said the camera only films the store and not the customers.
