A smash-and-grab ATM theft early Monday morning at the West End Mall left both entrances trashed, police said.
Around 6 a.m., police were called to the Mall at West End at 850 Oak Street, in response to an intruder alarm triggered.
Atlanta Police officer arrived to find “rather spectacular damage to the mall,” police spokesman Sgt. Greg Lyon said.
“A minivan and (a car were) used to steal an ATM from the mall,” Lyon said.
The vehicles were able to somehow slip past physical barriers — a row of concrete columns — spread out in front of the entrance to the mall.
And the van, Lyon said, was damaged on the way out the north entrance.
“One of the walls inside took the door off the minivan as it tried to leave,” he said.
A red Ford was left inside the mall, and the van exited through the exit on the north side of the mall, police said.
“Both the stolen van and the cash machine were discovered abandoned at Greenwich and Lucile,” Lyon said.
Police are looking for the thieves and trying to determine whether cash was taken from the ATM, but suggested the cash machine might have had no cash, Lyon said.
“The ATM looked as if it was pried open,” he said. “They succeeded in getting the ATM. We just don’t know if they got any money. It could’ve been all for an empty ATM.”
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