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Two males in a Houston-based legal gang have pleaded responsible in federal court docket after being charged as a part of a roving nationwide ATM crime spree through which a brand new methodology was used to interrupt into money machines, robbing banks in Florida and different states and netting lots of of 1000’s of {dollars}.
Charles Deon Mathews, 30, and Shai Trymaine Fields, 31, grabbed the money by monitoring and threatening an ATM repairman in Tallahassee whereas he was fixing the unlocked machine in broad daylight — a comparatively new crime method that prompted an FBI warning to legislation enforcement, “Touring ATM Theft Crews Shift Tradecraft to Embrace Surveilling Theft Targets.”
In earlier robberies, legal gangs usually focused ATMs with the so-called “hook and chain” methodology at evening or within the early morning hours. Thieves would again up a big truck to an ATM, safe a series round it and yank the machine out of the bottom earlier than making off with it within the automobile, in line with the FBI.
However the Houston-area gang, together with Mathews and Fields, has lately begun to shift gears. Right here’s how they do it, in line with the FBI and safety specialists:
The robbers begin by exactly damaging an ATM close to its protected door, so it sends out an error message, however doesn’t trigger sufficient hurt for the ATM to ship out a “panic” alert that may contain the police. The error message prompts a service technician to be notified through an app of the defective machine, and the repairman will come out to repair it, in line with the FBI and Steven Collinson, a safety knowledgeable from March Networks, a Canada-based ATM safety consulting agency.
The thieves conceal and wait till the repairman arrives and opens the ATM for repairs. They then ambush the technician and take away the money from the unlocked machine — all in minutes.
“This tactic is low threat and excessive reward,” the FBI mentioned in its warning late final yr. “ATM service technicians usually work alone, unarmed, with minimal safety and infrequently in much less populated or distant areas,” the FBI mentioned.
The warning mentioned the Houston-based theft crew surveilled and focused ATM service technicians in Indianapolis and Peoria, Arizona. The gang made off with $132,520 from the ATM in Indianapolis and $108,200 from the money machine in Peoria.
Within the Indianapolis theft, one of many robbers held a gun to the facet of the technician’s head and struck him with the barrel of the weapon.
The FBI detailed how Mathews and Fields, who pleaded responsible in Tallahassee final month to at least one depend every of financial institution theft, robbed a Wells Fargo Financial institution ATM on Mahan Drive in Tallahassee of $88,710 on July 19. The FBI arrested them in November.
At about 1:30 p.m. a restore technician working for Diebold-Nixdorf, an organization contracted to take care of Wells Fargo ATMs, arrived on the Mahan Drive ATM as a result of it was exhibiting an error message indicating the protected door was not closed, in line with court docket data.
The repairman “found that the ATM’s sensor was bent outwards towards the protected door,” in line with an interview the tech gave to a Tallahassee police division detective cited within the federal court docket data.
The technician described how he heard a automobile pull up after repairing the sensor however earlier than the ATM may very well be locked once more.
Mathews and Fields, sporting masks and hoods, rushed the technician and, fearing the lads had been armed, he raised his arms, ducked down and commenced to maneuver backward. The robbers — Mathews sporting gloves and Fields with socks on his fingers — eliminated a number of cassettes, which maintain the payments, from the machine. The theft was captured on surveillance video.
On the drive away, they threw the empty cassettes on the roadside after having eliminated the money.
In keeping with the FBI, ATMs sometimes include 4 cassettes — two for $20 notes and two for $50 notes. Every cassette holds as much as 2,000 payments. That may quantity to $280,000 in a totally stocked ATM. Some ATMs dispense $100 payments.
“It appeared the suspects had a working data of the system and knew the best way to entry the cassettes,” the technician informed the Tallahassee detective, noting that the robbers had been conversant in the best way to launch the locking mechanism to permit the money trays to slip out.
The 2 could have researched on the web how every kind of ATM works as the data is available on-line, Collinson mentioned.
Mathews and Fields had been trailing the repairman earlier than the theft as a result of safety footage confirmed their automotive parked at a financial institution the place the technician had serviced an ATM earlier that day earlier than being known as to the Wells Fargo location. The FBI famous in its warning that the surveillance and monitoring of an ATM repairman from one location to a different additionally occurred in an ATM theft in Arizona.
The federal government’s paperwork filed within the case don’t point out how authorities consider the pair might initially decide the placement of ATM technicians fixing machines at different banks, permitting the criminals to start their surveillance earlier than following the repairmen to the placement that was finally robbed.
The Tallahassee getaway automotive, a 2020 blue Nissan Rogue, was later tracked through a license plate reader to Gainesville, the place Mathews and Fields dropped it off on the Gainesville Regional Airport, purchased tickets and flew again to Houston, in line with court docket data.
In airport surveillance footage, they’re seen sporting garments that matched these worn throughout the theft.
Once they returned to Houston, Mathews and Fields took images and movies of themselves with the stolen money, wearing the identical garments they had been sporting on the aircraft throughout the flight house, in line with court docket filings.
A few month later, on Aug. 18, federal authorities consider the pair struck once more, robbing an ATM of about $150,000 at a Chase Financial institution in Sterling Heights, Michigan, utilizing the identical method.
Nonetheless, federal paperwork say that solely Mathews and one other particular person participated in that theft. Whereas it stays unclear whether or not the second particular person was Fields, federal authorities famous that they seem to have been touring on the similar time from Houston to Detroit, lower than 30 miles from Sterling Heights. The pair later took images and movies of themselves posing with the money from the Chase ATM.
Mathews and Fields didn’t admit to the Michigan heist and weren’t charged with that crime.
A Houston FBI agent later found that the getaway automotive had been rented underneath the identical alias used throughout the Florida ATM theft, in line with the affidavit. The FBI then checked flight logs and located that Mathews had been on a aircraft to Houston from Detroit the evening after the ATM theft.
A cooperating defendant additionally informed the FBI that Mathews had robbed a financial institution in Dallas earlier final yr and confirmed pictures of Mathews holding giant quantities of money following that theft, in line with court docket paperwork. Mathews was not charged in that crime.
Mathews and Fields every face a most of 20 years in jail when they’re sentenced in Tallahassee on April 25, in line with federal court docket data. They need to additionally pay Wells Fargo again the $88,710 that they stole.
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This story was produced by Contemporary Take Florida, a information service of the College of Florida Faculty of Journalism and Communications. The reporter will be reached at [email protected]. You possibly can donate to help our college students here.
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