The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the theft of two ATMs – one from an Arnold-area business and the other from a De Soto-area one – overnight between March 28 and March 29.
During that period, the culprits used a pry bar to force open the front door to Franco’s Smoke Shop, 12 Village Plaza, just south of Arnold and then placed a strap around an ATM inside the store and attached the other end to their vehicle and then drove forward, pulling out the machine. Then, the machine was loaded into the vehicle, and the thief or thieves fled the scene, Capt. Gary Higginbotham said.
The ATM contained $1,380 in $20 bills. There was no estimate for the ATM and the damage to the store, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
The thief or thieves used the same method to break into the Get N Go convenience store, 4090 Athena School Road, in the De Soto area and then steal the ATM from inside the business, Higginbotham said.
That ATM had $1,260 in cash inside. Altogether, the ATM, cash and damage at the De Soto-area store was valued at more than $4,000, the report said.
Higginbotham said the Sheriff’s Office has reviewed surveillance footage from at least one neighboring business, and it looked like the suspect or suspects were driving a gray Nissan Versa Note with some damage on its front driver side and on its hood.
It may have had Illinois license plates on it, he added.
Higginbotham said the thefts are connected and that similar thefts also were reported in St. Louis and Collinsville, Ill.
As of today (April 6), neither the ATMs nor the cash stolen from the Arnold-area and De Soto-area stores had been recovered. There were no arrests either, Higginbotham said.
Anyone with information about the thefts is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office tip line at 636-797-5515.