By Fletcher Word
The Truth Editor
In the wee small hours of the morning – Monday morning , November 18 – two thieves stole a Bobcat-type loader, a machine used to haul or push material from one location to another, from a construction site on Smead Avenue, drove it down the city streets to the Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union location at 3053 Monroe Street and knocked over an ATM machine.
No, really! Knocked it over. Knocked it over, picked it up and eventually loaded it into a pickup truck and drove off, without anyone apparently seeing them and reporting it.
The alarm on the ATM, which was so solidly grounded to the concrete that the screws remained in place, sounded at 4:24 am when the machine was first attacked, alerting Guardian Alarm, which subsequently alerted the police.
At 4:32, Angela Cattladge, TUFCU COO, received a call from Guardian Alarm and then a call from the Toledo Police Department as the robbery continued. TPD arrived on the scene at 4:41 a.m.
Meanwhile the scofflaws kept pushing the ATM loose from its moorings and, after several attempts, loaded it onto the truck, watched it fall off and reloaded it, all the while as people drove by in the morning hours oblivious to the ongoing theft.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (to whom such thefts from federally insured financial institutions must be reported) such a robbery is a first. “They have never seen something like this in this area,” said TUFCU CEO Suzette Cowell.
But of particular concern to TUFCU board members and staff is that this relatively small community financial institution in the heart of the city would be attacked. “This was not a black-on-black crime,” said Bishop Pat McKinstry, pastor of Worship Church and chair of the TUFCU board. The video of the incident appears to show the forehead of a white man’s head above his mask, she notes.
While this is the first time bandits have absconded with a TUFCU ATM, or anybody’s ATM in the area, this is not the first time TUFCU’s ATMs have been attacked.
In May of this year, an ATM at the Dorr Street location was attacked but could not be moved – it was simply severely damaged. In July, an ATM at the same location was raided and the thieves “took the brains” of the machine, said Cowell.
For the moment as Homeland Security and TPD try to solve the mystery, Cowell asks those in the community to be on the alert. If you see someone trying to run off in the middle of the night with an ATM, or even just attacking it on site, “call someone.”