Thieves target van delivering cash to ATM at gas station in Woodlawn
A thief targeted a van delivering cash to an ATM in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood on Monday morning.
A security expert said these kinds of crimes spike around this time of year.
Chicago police forensic specialists checked for fingerprints on a white cargo van after someone broke the front window moments after the driver parked at a gas station at 63rd and Drexel just before 10 a.m.
The van was full of cash, and the workers were at the gas station to fill an ATM inside.
"A lot of the companies that used to have these big armored vehicles, and they were marked, you know, armored vehicle, and you knew them when you saw them driving down the street, have gotten away from that a little bit, because in essence, they were advertising that they had a vehicle full of money," said security expert Anthonu Riccio.
Riccio, a former Chicago police deputy superintendent, said in the past five years, more money vehicles have transitioned to vans like the one broken into on Monday.
"You don't know when you see it driving down the street that there's hundreds of thousands of dollars, potentially, inside these vehicles. But the trade-off is you have windows that can easily be broken, and you don't have the same level of security and that's exactly what played out here," he said.
Police said that when the workers went inside the gas station, thieves made off with cash. Riccio said ATMs are attractive targets for thieves.
In recent weeks, thieves have broken into dozens of businesses across the city and burbs
"It's very common that they'll just take the whole machine and open it up someplace else," Riccio said.
In the Woodlawn money heist, no one was hurt, just the unmarked money van targeted. Hours after the robbery, the same gas station lost power due to an electrical outage.
"For somebody to know that this was a money transport, to be there at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if there might have been some inside information that these offenders had that gave them the knowledge that this truck was going to be there," Riccio said.
