A $76,000 Heist In North Philadelphia
by Elizabeth Hur and Jim Melwert
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Police are hunting for two men who stole a bag of cash out of the car of an ATM repairman in North Philadelphia.
There are a lot of unanswered questions this morning, one of which is why was all of that cash in an unguarded Mazda 5 sedan parked on the street.
Only Eyewitness News was there as detectives gathered evidence from the corner 10th and Susquehanna Tuesday night. They were responding to a report of tens of thousands of dollars stolen from a car that belonged to a 27-year-old man called to the shop to repair the ATM machine inside.
Chief Inspector Scott Small said, "He states that he had a bag with a very large quantity of cash inside his vehicle. When he was done servicing this particular ATM machine he went back out to his vehicle and found that the large amount of cash in a bag was gone."
According to sources, the victim told police almost $100,000 were inside a duffle bag the victim left in the front seat. Authorities later said $76,000 was inside the bag. Police say it appears the suspects somehow got into the car before running away with the loot. They know this, we are told, because the entire theft was caught on tape. According to police, the car might have been left unlocked.
Small explained, "We're very fortunate to have surveillance cameras that did record the two suspects at this time that we believe were not only inside of the store prior to taking the cash but they were also observed taking the bag of money from the car."
Police, for now, describe the two suspects as two males who appear to be in their late teens. Sources tell Eyewitness News the quality of the video is excellent. Police hope to release the images later today, and for their own safety, police say the two who stole the bag may want to get in touch with them, before word gets out on the street that they have a bag of $76,000 cash.
