Stolen ATM recovered in Colleton County

gsmith@postandcourier.com

Colleton County sheriff’s deputies have recovered an ATM stolen Monday from a Summerville credit union.

Chief Deputy Ted Stanfield said Dorchester County authorities alerted the sheriff’s office Monday that a truck stolen from 84 Lumber might be found in the Walterboro area. When the alert was broadcast, a Colleton deputy recalled seeing the truck parked at a Jonathan Lane home, he said.

Deputies went to the home Monday afternoon and found the truck, which happened to be carrying the stolen ATM, Stanfield said. The machine has not yet been opened, and authorities aren’t sure if it still has its cash, he said.

Stanfield said investigators have a couple of people they plan to question about the truck, but no arrests have been made.

Summerville police Capt. Jon Rogers confirmed that the recovered ATM was the same machine stolen from the Federal Credit Union at 140 Westvaco Road. He said police have not charged any suspects in connection with the theft.

The $75,000 ATM was stolen by thieves who used a front-end loader stolen from a nearby construction site to rip the machine from its base and out of view of security cameras, police said. The thieves then hauled the machine away in a truck, police said.

The heist bears similarities to at least a half-dozen other ATM thefts that have occurred across the state, including one in Mount Pleasant in June.

Police, however, said they have not established any firm connections between those thefts and Monday’s heist.

The theft comes two months after a drive-though ATM was stolen from a SunTrust bank branch at Ivy Hall in Mount Pleasant.

That theft also occurred in the early morning hours and involved a forklift stolen from a nearby construction site, police said. The ATM was valued at about $20,000, police said.

In April 2011, thieves used a stolen forklift to spear an ATM and hoist it onto a stolen pickup truck outside a Lexington bank. Thieves also used stolen construction equipment and a purloined pickup to swipe an ATM from a Pawleys Island bank last year.

Similar thefts have been reported in Anderson, Greenville and Clemson.

Check back with postandcourier.com for updates on this story as they become available.