You Won't Believe What Happened in Alleged ATM Theft

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Sometimes, you just want to stand up and cheer for beleaguered little guy.

That would be Ahmed Al-Battat, who runs a Marathon gas station in Warren that has been hit three times by alleged thieves trying to relieve him of his hard-earned cash.

But this time, Al-Battat scored a victory, despite evidence to the contrary after the front door was ripped from its frame. The window wasn’t broken. Saving the expense to fix that was another win – but not the big win – for the gas station owner who told WXYZ-TV he just tries to be a good neighbor.

Surveillance video shows what went down about 2 o’clock Monday morning.

• Watch the video here.

Wearing gloves and coverings on their faces, three men attached a chain to an older model Jeep Cherokee Sport and ripped the door of the gas station from its frame, then wrapped a chain around an ATM machine in an attempt to drag it from the gas station.

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But the chain kept breaking, so the men had to break the ATM off its anchor bolts, slide it out of the store and hoist it into the back of the Jeep. In their rush to flee the scene, one of the suspects slammed the Jeep’s rear hatchback door on the head of one of his partners.

And then – wait for it, because despite Al-Battat’s broken gas station door, this is where the little guy gets some sweet revenge:

The ATM was empty.

That’s right – all that effort, a likely headache for one of the suspects and very little, if any, cash to show for it.

Warren Police Commissioner Jere Green told WDIV-TV that people had been complaining Sunday that the ATM was empty and hadn’t been serviced. The machine also is believed to have been equipped with a tracking device.

“It takes a lot of work to get into one of these ATMs,” Green said. “They’re pretty well fortified so they’re going to have to go inside a house, do a lot of work and hopefully when they open it, well, I wish we could have video of their disappointed faces.”

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Surveillance video screenshot via WDIV-TV