A unique attempt to rob an ATM in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, using a JCB machine, failed miserably when the earth excavator got stuck in a pothole. On April 24 midnight, thieves attempted to steal an Axis Bank ATM from the Miraj area of Sangli using a stolen excavator. The ATM had Rs 27 lakh cash.
The crime was caught in the CCTV camera installed inside the ATM booth and now the video of the incident is going viral on social media. In the video footage, a JCB machine is seen smashing the glass door of the ATM and uprooting the teller machine. The accused then fled the scene with the machine.
#WATCH | A stolen JCB was used to rob an ATM in Sangli in Maharashtra@Santia_Gora #JCB #ATM #Sangli #Maharashtra #bulldozer pic.twitter.com/8sdGriF14s
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) April 25, 2022
However, the JCB machine got stuck in a pothole a few kilometers away from the crime scene. Unable to manoeuvre the excavator out of the pothole, the thieves abandoned the machine and fled.
The police said that the JCB was first stolen from a petrol pump before the ATM loot happened. After retrieving the stolen JCB and ATM with the Rs 27 lakh cash, the police launched a manhunt for the accused.
"We are investigating the CCTV footage of the petrol pump. And from the information available we have formed two teams for the investigation,” news agency ANI quoted inspector Chandrakant Bedre, in charge of Miraj Gramin Police station, as saying.
Earlier this month, an earth excavator and gas cutting torches were used by a bunch of thieves to steal a bridge in Bihar and sell it as scrap. The bridge on the Ara canal in Amiyavar village, near the city of Sasaram, was 60 feet long and 12 feet high. Built in 1976, the bridge had not been in use since the early 2000s as a concrete bridge had been built nearby.
The police later arrested eight men after seizing the JCB machine, gas cutting torches and cylinders, a pick-up van and 247 kg of metal.
