BALTIMORE (AP) - Thieves are using trucks as battering rams to steal automatic teller machines from inside local businesses, Baltimore police said.
The thieves sometimes use stolen vehicles to force entry, crashing through storefronts to get at the cash, The Baltimore Sun reported. According to police, the crimes have continued on and off for months.
During the course of one hour on June 27, three stores were hit in west, northeast and midtown Baltimore. The problem has reached the point that some store owners said they’ve taken to emptying the machines nightly, to limit potential losses.
Nearly every case is captured on store video footage, but few have been solved and police can’t point to any particular initiative they’ve formed to take on the string of thefts other than regular sharing of information across districts.
Police said they recovered DNA and fingerprints from some of the machines, but say it hasn’t been enough to file charges.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.