Smash and grab ATM theft is this recession´s hip crime

Call it the total ATM withdrawl. In the past year, as the economic slump has dragged on, robbers around the country are increasingly trying a new method to get their hands on cash. They´re no longer swiping stolen cards in automated teller machines. More and more thieves are swiping the machine, itself.

 ATM theft, it appears, is this recession´s hottest crime. There were more than 100 instances of teller machine robberies in Texas alone in 2010. In San Diego, thieves have snatched or attempted to make off with ATMs 28 times in the past year. That´s up from 2 cases of the crime in the year before. In Atlanta, which has also seen a spike in ATM crime, as many as 35 machines have disappeared this year, up from 12 in 2009. "The suburbs are starting to see some ATM thefts, too," says Archie Ezell, a supervising gang investigator in the Atlanta Police Department. "This is definitely a crime that has some legs."

source: here