Robbers used a pickup to ram through a frame and glass wall at a Northland convenience store, but they failed to snare their target: an ATM.
"It was bolted on the wall pretty good," said part-owner Hail Anwar, who was called to the Quickserve convenience store at 5002 N.E. Parvin Road by police and reviewed surveillance tapes. "They stomped, jumped and yanked on it, but they couldn't get it."
The attempt was one of four similar cases early Wednesday in the Northland. Thieves got away with one ATM, damaged two and stole a safe. Authorities think the cases are related to other ATM thefts in the metro area.
The FBI is investigating. The heists are similar to ones in Raytown, Overland Park, Independence and elsewhere in Kansas City, said Jeff Lanza, a spokesman for the agency.
"We're working under that assumption," Lanza said.
The FBI is investigating 10 successful ATM robberies this year, Lanza said. Other ATM thefts -- where money wasn't taken or the ATMs aren't tied to banks that are federally insured -- have occurred that police are investigating.
On Wednesday, a theft was reported at 3:28 a.m. at a gas station near in the 200 block of Northeast Englewood Road. Kansas City police found glass smashed and an ATM missing, said Sgt. Ricky Rapp of the North Patrol Division.
That ATM and a Ford pickup used in the robbery were later found, Rapp said. The thieves later hit the Quickserve.
"I'm just glad nobody was hurt," Anwar said.
Police later recovered a GMC pickup used in the attempt.
Both the Ford and GMC trucks had been stolen from a Northland auto shop, Rapp said.
Also early Wednesday, a flatbed Chevrolet pickup stolen in Liberty was used to ram into a gas station with an ATM near Northeast 43rd Street and Antioch Road. But the robbers failed to get the ATM.
They did break glass to enter a nearby pizza restaurant and took a safe with less than $300 in it.
No suspects have been identified, Rapp and Lanza said.
Surveillance tapes showed two men wearing hooded sweatshirts over their heads and scarves over their faces, Rapp said. One had a mustache and was about 6 feet tall, wearing a jean jacket over the sweatshirt.
The robberies came on the heels of one Thanksgiving morning in Raytown. In that case, thieves backed a white van through the front door of a drugstore, loaded an ATM and took off, said Capt. Ted Bowman of the Raytown Police Department. No suspects have been identified.
See security camera video and photos of a suspect in the ATM robberies.
