ATM stolen from Ikea store at Atlantic Station

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATM thieves have struck again, this time at the IKEA store near Atlantic Station.

According to Atlanta police dispatchers and store officials, the thieves pried open the front door of the large furniture and housewares store on 16th Street about 4:15 a.m. and took a cash machine from inside.

The thieves were in a white van, possibly a Ford Aerostar. They were described as five males, some wearing read "hoodies" and some in black hoodies, and all wearing blue jeans.

Mark Fitzsimmons, sales manager for Ikea, told the AJC that the thieves apparently used a crow bar to pry open the front door, then went about 200 feet into the store to get to the ATM, which was bolted to the floor.

"They were in and out in three minutes," Fitzsimmons said.

The theft was the latest in a recent rash of ATM thefts plaguing Atlanta businesses.

Early Saturday, a cash machine was stolen from the Stop and Save convenience store on Hosea Williams Drive after thieves crashed a stolen Cadillac Escalade through the store's front window.

Later that same morning, thieves rammed a van through the front of a CVS drug store on Northside Parkway, and five men carried out a Chase ATM and loaded it into the back of a pickup truck.

On July 19, a brazen band of thieves walked into the Broadway Diner on Peachtree Street with a dolly, pushed employees aside and carted off the restaurant's ATM.

"It seems like there's a cycle where we get a rash of thefts involving denim, then they'll go to the flat-screen TVs," Atlanta police Sgt. Archie Ezell told WSB Radio after last weekend's thefts. "Right now they're on ATMs."