Thieves leaves empty handed after botching ATM heist

Malaysian Digest, Friday, 7 February 2014

Pic : www.merchantservicescomplete.comKAJANG: A gang of thieves abandoned their plans to cart away an automated teller machine from a bank in Sungai Long after their attempts to open and cart away the machine failed.

Police were only alerted to the incident when a couple who had gone to withdraw cash stumbled upon one machine that was outside the bank corridor at 6am.

The glass panel of the bank was shattered due to the thieves' attempts to drag the machine out of the premises.

The bank manager confirmed no cash was taken although the suspects managed to cut open the safe which was inside the machine.

Kajang police chief ACP Rashid Wahab said they believe there were more than four men involved.

“The suspects sprayed the two CCTVs in the bank, thus we are unable to determine exactly how many were involved,” he said.

Rashid said police have retrieved CCTV recordings from neighbouring premises to gather more information on the vehicle used by the suspects. However, no cameras were focused on the place where the attempted theft took place.

“The suspects had used an iron cable to tie the machine and must have used a heavy vehicle to pull it out.”

He believed the suspects abandoned their plan after the alarm system was triggered.
“They must have panicked and left. The bank staff told us there were also attempts to break open the other ATM machine’s safe.”

There were two ATM machines, two cash deposits and a cheque deposit machine in the bank.
“We will work with police from other districts to see if this could be the same gang that have committed similar thefts in the past.”

Rashid said so far, no eye witnesses have come forward.