Thieves make ATM withdrawal: Entire machine is gone

Article by: Tim Harlow and Allie Shah , Star Tribune
Updated: September 11, 2007 - 12:41 AM

Some thieves are light-fingered, others heavy-handed. A burglary early Friday morning at Hamline University in St. Paul definitely falls into the second category.

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Some thieves are light-fingered, others heavy-handed. A burglary early Friday morning at Hamline University in St. Paul definitely falls into the second category.

Thieves hauled away an entire automatic cash machine after yanking it from its mount in the school's Klas Center, making off with an undisclosed amount of cash.

St. Paul police say they don't have any suspects yet in the burglary, which happened between 2:20 and 3 a.m.

Police Department spokesman Tom Walsh said the thieves pried open a door to gain access to the four-story building, which is adjacent to Hamline's football and track complex. The building houses university memorabilia and has lockers for Hamline athletes, a banquet hall, classrooms and meeting space, and a deli on the first floor.

The cash machine, which belongs to Associated Bank of Green Bay, Wis., was in a common area of the building, Walsh said.

He added that the thieves were not photographed by security cameras. Wheel marks inside the building indicate that they used a dolly to load and move the machine.

Jacqui Getty, a media relations director at the school of about 4,550 students, said there was no danger that the thieves would be able to obtain account information or the personal identification numbers of those who had used the machine.

"The machine didn't store account numbers, so there was no risk there," she said.

Over the past few years, there have been occasional reports of stolen ATMs in the Twin Cities. In May, an ATM was stolen from a building at Bethel University in Arden Hills. And two years ago in Shakopee, an ATM that had been stolen from Arizona's Bar was found in the 1400 block of Stagecoach Road.

tharlow@startribune.com • 612-673-7768 ashah@startribune.com • 651-298-1550