Investigators Say They've Cracked Brazen ATM Theft Ring

Police think they’ve arrested the brazen thieves who alleged 17 ATM heists spanned eight metro Detroit communities and targeted nine Secretary of State offices.

The arrests of four men by a task force investigating the robberies were announced Friday by Detroit police the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Dearborn police, state police and the Michigan Department of Corrections.

In each of them, the suspects crashed stolen vehicles into the front doors of buildings, grabbed the ATMs and fled, The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press reports.

Metro communities targeted include Canton Township, Dearborn, Detroit, Hamtramck, Inkster, Melvindale, Southfield and Oak Park. Two people were arrested last month, two more were arrests were made Thursday and more arrests are likely, investigators said.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig said investigators began noticing a pattern in the ATM thefts about a year ago. “In November, they intensified, with four in one month,” he said.

Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said the crimes violated citizens’ sense of security.

“We had some pretty brazen criminals,” Haddad said. “It’s really unsettling when you bust down a wall and take an ATM from a Secretary of State’s Office. People come into work and see a big hole in the wall; they feel violated.”

Two of the suspects – Christian McGregor and Edwin Snerling, both of Detroit – have been charged in federal court. George Krappmann, ATF assistant special agent in charge of the Detroit Field Division, declined to identify the other two persons who have been arrested, citing the ongoing investigation.

Though there may be more suspects, investigators think they have the “core group,” Craig said.

The ATF conducted a series of warrant searches Thursday, recovering “multiple items recovered that indicated they had involvement with these ATM robberies,” Krappmann said.

Among the items seized were firearms and ATM parts. “During one of these robberies, one of the individuals was observed to have a handgun,” Krappmann said. “There could’ve been tragic consequences.”

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