A rash of ATM-related crime in Dallas this year has shifted to building lobbies where people may be around, police said Thursday.
The Dallas Hilton Anatole Hotel was a target May 7 when a truck pulled up to the Chantilly entrances at about at 4:24 a.m. with four masked, gloved and hooded men inside, said Dallas Police Maj. Bill Humphrey. Three went in and tried to grab the ATM but it was too heavy, and hotel security ran them off before they completed the crime.
"They're very bold. They're very brazen, almost arrogant in the way they go around committing these offenses, and it is concerning," Humphrey said.
So far in 2015 Dallas police report 39 ATM-related crimes, 17 of them successful and 22 attempted.
Until recently they were mostly "smash-and-grab" crimes committed at closed businesses when no one was around.
"And now you see offenses where they're going into lobbies of the Anatole. And that's kind of scary," Humphrey said.
The Hyatt House Hotel at 8221 North Central Expressway near North Park Mall was a target on April 25 at 6:15 a.m. A side door was pried open and suspects removed an ATM from the lobby. A stolen vehicle used in that crime was recovered later, but no one was arrested.
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The Brookriver Center office complex at 8150 Brookriver Drive was targeted April 27. Four suspects pried a door off the hinges and got away with the ATM.
An ATM at the Dallas Convention Center was targeted April 15, but an alarm went off and suspects fled without success, police said.
"We want to catch these folks," Humphrey said.
Four suspects have been arrested for some of this year's ATM crimes, but police believe many more are still out there, still looking for machines to grab.
"Some of these guys will go in and actually physically lead on it, push on it, look around it, do a little bit of homework, and come back days later and take it. So we're just asking the public, if they see suspicious activity around an ATM machine, take a note who is doing that. If there's a vehicle involved, mark down that license plate, and get us that information," Humphrey said.
Police think a loose-knit network of thieves is responsible for the unsolved crimes in Dallas and other cities, too – some connected to each other, some not. ATM crimes have also been reported in 2015 in Lewisville, Mesquite and Arlington.
A suspect arrested for a 2013 Waco hotel ATM theft was recently sentenced to 40 years in prison for a career of ATM-related crime including infractions in Dallas. A group of co-defendants also received long prison sentences.
Dallas police made 60 arrests for a rash of ATM crime in 2013. Some of the suspects are still in prison, while others have already been released.
