By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The FBI is tracking bank robbery schemes involving suspects who jam ATMs and then ambush repair technicians who respond to service calls.
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Video captured three suspects robbing a Bank of America ATM in Tempe in November 2024, getting away with nearly $300,000 in cash. Court documents show the scheme had been going on since July 2022.
The documents state suspects “surveil and follow ATM technicians to an ATM or cause a malfunction with the ATM causing the technicians to respond.”
“Through force, violence and intimidation, defendants steal cash cassettes from the open ATM.”
Authorities said the trio was behind ATM heists in Nevada, California and Kansas.
FBI monitoring robbery crews
Matthew Schaeffer, an Assistant Special Agent with the FBI’s criminal branch, said the threat is active.
“This is an ongoing threat we’re seeing. It started several years ago and it’s continuing through,” Schaeffer said.
“We have little groups of people, robbery crews are sometimes what we call them. They basically get together and come up with these schemes to try to get rich quick,” he said.
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Schaeffer said suspects sometimes steal hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In February, two suspects were sentenced for a similar scheme across six states, from Washington to Arizona to Maine. Photos included in the search warrant show one suspect in sunglasses and another with a face mask and a screwdriver.
According to court records, a technician responded to the first incident, saw that the ATM had been tampered with and alerted his manager, who called the FBI. While speaking with the agent, the technician learned he had another pending service call for a bank ATM malfunction. Then a third call came in.
Investigators said the two men were stopped before they could attempt to rob one of the technicians.
Schaeffer said bank robbers were going from state to state to avoid detection.
The FBI is working with local police departments, banks and companies, deploying technicians. While the FBI said there is no larger network behind the robberies, the agency is monitoring the cases closely.
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