Two smash-and-grab attempts to steal ATMs fail

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By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thieves continued to target ATMs Friday, smashing their way into two Atlanta stores but failing to make off with the cash machines.

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Thieves slammed a van into a CVS Pharmacy along Highland Avenue. Police say the crooks were after the ATM, but didn't get anything.

Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com Thieves slammed a van into a CVS Pharmacy along Highland Avenue. Police say the crooks were after the ATM, but didn't get anything.

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The first attempted theft was at a southwest Atlanta convenience store at the intersection of Campbellton and County Line roads and the second at a CVS on Highland Avenue in northeast Atlanta.

The Friday morning attempts do not appear to be related.

Shortly after midnight, three men in a black Ford F-150 pickup with an extended cab pulled up to the Chevron Food Mart on Campbellton Road, APD spokesman officer Otis Redmond said.

The front door was smashed but the would-be thieves did not take the ATM, he said.

The three men drove off in the damaged truck just minutes before police arrived, responding to an alarm.

Then, almost three hours later, four would-be thieves in two minivans were captured on video at a Highland Avenue CVS Pharmacy, Redmond said.

The men in one van seemed to be lookouts while the other minivan was driven into the front of the pharmacy, Redmond said.

Nothing was stolen and all four men escaped, two of them on foot after ditching their van.

The incidents Friday morning are the latest in a rash of ATM thefts or attempted thefts plaguing Atlanta businesses.

On Thursday, ATM thieves were successful at the IKEA store at Atlantic Station.

In that case, thieves in a white van pulled up to the large furniture and housewares store around 4:15 a.m. They used a crowbar to pry open the front door and then took a cash machine from inside.

They were gone within three minutes.

And on Saturday there were two reports of ATM thefts.

In the first one, a stolen Cadillac Escalde was driven through the front window of a Stop and Save convenience store on Hosea Williams Drive and the ATM was taken.

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

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