ATM Bandits Continue Robbery Spree

RIVERDALE PARK, Md. - Police from a number of jurisdictions in the D.C. area are teaming up to search for ATM robbery suspects whom they say have struck at least 16 times in the last two months.

They continue to target stores all over the region, and that's gotten the attention of even more law enforcement agencies. Some of them say the more agencies are involved, the sooner the suspects will get caught.

It was just last month when video was captured at a D.C. Chevron station. Two men walked in, one with a white hood and the other with a black hood. The video shows them calmly taking out their tools, cracking open the ATM, taking the cash box and driving off in a pickup truck.

Minutes later, they were captured on video again. This time, it was at a liquor store on Kenilworth Avenue. Investigators say it was the same suspects committing the same crime.

"It's not a nighttime crime—it's in the middle of the day," said Chief Teresa Chambers of the Riverdale Park Police Department.

Chief Chambers says last week, the suspects struck in her jurisdiction. It happened on September 21 at the Exxon Tiger Mart on Baltimore Avenue. Police say two suspects with tools walked in and cracked open the ATM.

"The brazenness is what astounds us," said Chief Chambers. "These two men went into an occupied business with the manager there in his work area, and in 30 seconds took the money and were out the door."

They made off with about $3,000. The suspects were driving a Ford Crown Victoria with Virginia plates. It was found empty the next day in Southeast D.C.

"You will see people come in and rob a place, use a handgun or pass a note, but to walk into a store with pry tools that quickly not caring who sees their vehicles," said Chief Chambers.

Investigators in several jurisdictions are now looking for these ATM bandits who they believe have committed at least 16 of these crimes in the region.

"We know they will slip up or they will brag about it," said Chief Chambers. "It's going to be a citizen that helps break these cases."

In all of these crimes, the suspects are wearing what appears to be fire department-issued headgear and tools to crack open the ATMs.

"We have got lots of agencies looking to solve these cases, and the quicker, the better," Chief Chambers told FOX 5.

The last location the suspects hit is where Riverdale Police fill up their cars, and it's only a short distance from the police station. Chief Chambers says that's careless behavior that eventually will put these suspects behind bars.