Masked Thieves Hit 49 NYC Stores, Collect $40,000 From ATMs

Thieves targeted 49 stores across New York City to steal ATMs and get their hands on mounds of cash.

Police said three suspects hit stores in northern Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens between September 19 and December 26 to take money and other items. New York Post reported Saturday. The group allegedly used boosted cars as getaway vehicles.

A picture watch suspects snatching an ATM from a store:

This news comes after the city experienced a 5% increase in shoplifting incidents, as reported on May 18. Sometime in 2023, a New York supermarket was forced to protect its $6 cartons of ice cream with bolted-on plastic lids to prevent theft.

The recent Job The report says the suspects stole nearly $40,000 in cash from ATMs on two occasions in September. However, law enforcement was unable to share a total for all the vending machines stolen in the thefts:

On December 23, surveillance cameras captured two of the criminals around 1:20 a.m. removing wires from an ATM at a grocery store located at 75-10 31st Ave. in Jackson Heights, Queens, according to a video released Friday by the New York Police Department.

Cops are asking the public for any information on the three suspects involved in the citywide armed robbery. The police have not yet made any arrests. Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA ( 74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.

The Singh family has owned one of the stores that has been hit by the high-speed thieves for years, and this was the first time something like this had happened to them, ABC 7 reported Friday.

“This business has been around for 25 years, this has never happened,” one of the owners said.

The news comes as leaders in the Democratic-led city scramble to fill positions within the police department, as the number of applicants testing to become NYPD officers has reportedly declined in recent years, according to Breitbart News.