CCTV - Smash-n-Grab Attempt for ATM Goes Wrong

Would-be thieves abandoned hand tools and used a pickup truck early Wednesday to break into JR's Pump and Pantry at the corner of Route FF and Highway 59. The Jasper County Sheriff's Department is seeking residents? help in locating two men, recorded on store security video, and the white pickup truck officials believe was damaged in the incident. Video shows the two using tools in an attempt to open doors to the convenience store. Then, they are shown positioning the truck in front of the store, and backing through the double doors. They worked for about two minutes trying to load an automated teller machine in the truck. They got the machine off its base and wrestled it to the truck, then left when they were unable to lift the machine into the truck bed. ?Those machines are really heavy, and we think they probably left when they couldn?t move the machine quickly, because the security alarm was sounding,? said Lt. Aaron Richardson, of the sheriff's Criminal Investigations Division. The department was notified of the theft about 3 a.m. Both men were wearing hooded sweat shirts with the hoods, and bandanas or other coverings obscuring their faces. Both suspects appear to be about six feet tall, and stocky in stature, Richardson said. ?It's unusual,? Sheriff Archie Dunn said of the thieves? use of a pickup as a break-in tool. ?There was a tremendous amount of damage done to the front of the store.? Dunn said officials believe the vehicle may have been stolen, noting there was no license plate on the back. The truck appears to be a newer-model white, Ford, four-door pickup with chrome wheels. The vehicle should have damage to the rear of the truck, and to the sides, where it was backed through the store's doors. The truck's tail lights also may be broken, he said. He said deputies were looking into the possibility the break-in was related to a similar incident that occurred at a convenience store in Lawrence County about an hour earlier. The attempts sound similar, agreed Capt. Roger Kerr, of the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department. He said thieves just after midnight Wednesday smashed a window to get inside a Zippy Stop convenience store on Farm Road 1010 just off Interstate 44 about 11 miles west of Mount Vernon. They tried to get into an ATM machine inside the store, but were unsuccessful, he said. Deputies were picking up a copy of the store surveillance video of the Jasper County incident. July 11th, 2007 http://www.joplinglobe.com/carthage_jasper_county/local_story_192210810.html'start:int=0