Police search for suspects accused of trying to steal ATM from Sheetz in Cheswick
Police are searching for several suspects accused of trying to steal an ATM from a Sheetz in Cheswick on Monday.
Police said no arrests have been made in the case, but it did lead investigators to a suspect in another theft case.
"It's going to be hard to find them," witness Stephanie Karpinski said. "Their faces were covered. They had hats on. They were pretty well covered."
Police said the four suspects, believed to be juveniles, are on the run. Authorities said they used a dolly to wheel a PNC ATM from the Sheetz to their pickup truck on Monday night.
Karpinski said she knew something was wrong as soon as she arrived.
"When I pulled in, there were five guys outside, and they all had on black pants, black shirts, black hats, black masks," Karpinski said. "And their shirts on the back said security with white lettering."
"They had the PNC machine on the dolly, and they were trying to lift it up and put it on the truck," she added.
Karpinski said she alerted the staff inside. However, the suspects' plan did not work as a police officer arrived, and they took off.
Police chased the white pickup truck onto Route 28, but the suspects got away. On Tuesday, police in Verona arrested 59-year-old Jerry Chambers in the same white pickup truck as he tried to return it to an Enterprise.
"The only information we have is that a vehicle fitting that description was involved in a chase on [Route] 28," Verona Police Chief Tom Dessell said. "And through use of license plate readers, we were able to track down that vehicle to the Enterprise rental in Verona."
"Chambers was operating that same truck today when he was taken into custody," he added.
Police said they do not believe Chambers was in that white pickup truck at the time of the attempted ATM theft. But Dessell said on Nov. 28, a group of masked men tried to steal a vehicle's registration plate on Second Street. Police said a video shows Chambers trying to steal a license plate from a pickup truck.
They said the group later left the area in a GMC pickup truck, the same truck believed to have been used in the Sheetz ATM robbery case.
"Chambers has an extensive 40-year-plus criminal record of burglary, thefts and robberies," Dessell said. "So to get someone off the street like that is pretty good."
KDKA was told a manager questioned the group when they took the ATM, and they said they were replacing it. She then hit the panic button.