A bizarre case of tampering was discovered at a pair of ATMs in Greenbelt, Maryland, over the weekend.
A piece of metal was found glued over the slit where people withdraw cash from at a pair of drive-through ATMs at two different banks located only a couple of miles apart from each other.
The first tampered machine was discovered at a Bank of America off Hanover Parkway in Greenbelt around 7:30 p.m. Saturday evening. Officers then went out and investigated all the other banks in Greenbelt.
A similar obstruction was discovered in an ATM at a Capital One Bank at Beltway Plaza.
“The one thing we have not been able to determine is whether or not this is being done to distract people, so that when they’re trying to get their money out, and it’s not coming out, that maybe another crime is about to take place,” said Ricardo Dennis, a spokesman for Greenbelt police.
Dennis described it as a piece of metal trim or an old metal ruler glued to each machine.
“Somebody can run up on them, or maybe rob them in a different kind of way. But we haven’t been able to determine that,” he added.
A single $20 bill was found jammed inside one of the machines. It’s not clear how long the metal had ben glued there, but police have been reaching out to banks throughout the day on Monday to discuss what was happening and conduct further checks on ATMs around the city.
“It was great that this citizen was alert and the citizen discovered it, so they were able to alert us. We were able to go out and remove that device as well as the other one,” said Dennis. “Also we were able to share the images to other law enforcement agencies, as well as on our social media, and different news sites so that people now know what to look for. And this could prevent other people from having a problem down the road.”
Police are trying to determine the motivation behind the tampering.
“If there had been something electronic or something else hooked up to it, that would have given us a better indication,” said Dennis. “But at this point is looks like it’s just a little metal plate that’s covering it up.”
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