A thief used a stolen forklift to rip an ATM off its foundation at Combined Federal Credit Union, 203 Nash St., Thursday morning, then loaded it into a stolen truck and drove to a wooded area at the back of the Hot Springs High School campus where he pried it open using a compact excavator and took an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.
The ATM equipment was valued at around $8,000, Hot Springs police Cpl. Joey Williams said, asking that anyone with information about the crime to call the police department at 501-321-6789.
A metal panel from the ATM was still dangling from the bucket of a Takeuchi TB180FR compact excavator when police initially arrived at the high school property, according to a newspaper photographer at the scene at around 10:40 a.m. A U-Haul box truck, with its gate still open, was located a short distance from the ATM.
Police said in a news release that the truck and the forklift were stolen. The release did not state whether the excavator was also stolen. A police officer at the scene said the forklift was stolen from a construction site on Central Avenue.
Hot Springs School District Superintendent Stephanie Nehus told The Sentinel-Record on Thursday that a district maintenance employee found the ATM while going to access a storage building behind the school's baseball and softball fields at the back of the Hot Springs High School campus. Nehus said the ATM and other items were in an area behind the fields and behind a storage area.
Nehus said no district daily routines were impacted. "We are continuing with school as normal," she said.
Officers were called to the credit union at 5:15 a.m., police said in a news release, and noted "extensive damage" to the roof over the ATM area.
According to an employee of the credit union, the thief reportedly left the forklift behind once the ATM was loaded onto the truck. Police released a still frame from a security video of the U-Haul at the credit union, and of a suspect operating the forklift.
Officers were called to the high school campus at 10:40 a.m. Thursday, the release said.
Parts of the roof of the credit union were hanging from the building Thursday morning, while debris from the building and the ATM were scattered around the drive-through area. A credit union surveillance camera had also been destroyed.
Local on 08/24/2018