Aspiring thieves foil ATM burglary by burning money
MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — An attempted robbery does not go as expected for potential thieves in Madison County.
“If you have something that is able to catch things on fire and it is real close to paper, what is going to happen to that paper?” questioned Jackson Fire Department Battalion Chief Brian Bowers. “By heating up the material that’s actually holding the paper, it is going to generate enough heat that it is actually going to burn the paper before you get inside.”
That is exactly what happened at a local gas station just before 5 a.m. on April 13.
In security footage, you can see a car pull to the front of the store, and the driver goes to the back of the vehicle to retrieve a tool that they used in an attempt to break into an ATM.
I did some research, and there was a full moon this night — however, this full moon we have to blur out for reporting purposes.
“I got a phone call from my security company,” said store owner Baldevbah Patel. “They called the police already. When I came here the police were here.”
A little over $9,000 was inside of the ATM that the suspects were trying to get their hands on. Unfortunately for them, the tool that they used burned all of the money up, and they left with nothing.
What is even more shocking with this situation is that nothing else was damaged inside of the store. It was only that one ATM. You can see in the video sparks flying everywhere, all over the merchandise behind the ATM and across the aisle. It is a wonder that nothing else was damaged.
“Smelling the fumes off of it is a hazard to your health,” Bowers said. “And it can become combustible by itself and cause an explosion in your hand if not handled correctly.”
Unfortunately, authorities are still trying to find these guys, and Patel told us that it seems like the car was stolen, so they are not able to trace them that way.
If you have any information regarding this incident, please call Crime Stoppers at (731) 424-8477.
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