An ATM was stolen early Friday morning using stolen heavy equipment and a possibly stolen U-Haul truck. The Texarkana, Texas, Police Department is investigating the overnight theft from the Red River Federal Credit Union branch in the 2700 block of University Avenue.
About 2 a.m. Friday, patrol officers responded to an alarm call at the bank, TTPD spokesman Shawn Vaughn said, and discovered an ATM on the north side of the building had been stolen.
A skylift, a piece of heavy equipment stolen from a nearby construction site, was used to remove the ATM from its footings, he said. The ATM was then loaded into what police believe was a stolen U-Haul truck, last seen headed south on University Avenue, according to police.
An undisclosed amount of cash was in the ATM.
Vaughn said investigators are trying to determine if the incident is related to a rash of ATM thefts that happened in late 2015.
On Christmas Day 2015, suspects used sledgehammers to break into the Triple J Convenience Store on South Lake Drive.
The Christmas 2015 burglary was the eighth ATM related theft in the Texarkana area.
On Dec.1, 2015, police responded to a call CVS Pharmacy on Richmond Road. Suspects had driven a stolen truck through the pharmacy's glass entrance doors in an effort to retrieve the ATM and pull it out with a chain. However, the abandoned pickup and unopened ATM were found in the parking lot.
Police said at that time that ATM thefts were a trending crime in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Anyone who has information or may have noticed any suspicious activity in the area near that time is asked to call TTPD at 903-798-3116 or Crime Stoppers at 903-793-STOP.