In what seems to be a heist
straight out of a crime thriller, about half-a-dozen men uprooted an ATM machine which had around Rs eight lakh cash in it, loaded it in a small truck before melting away in darkness last night at north-east Delhi's Bhajanpura area, police said today.
Although the CCTV camera in the ATM and its footage was gone with the machine, the entire act was caught in a camera installed outside a nearby jewellery shop.
The incident took place at Subhash Market in Bhajanpura at the SBI ATM when no guard was present at it.
According to the CCTV footage, the thieves reached the ATM in a green pick up truck at around 2:35 AM and took away the machine around 3:05 AM.
While some of them had their faces covered, faces of others could be seen in the footage where they are seen slicing off the base of the machine with a gas cutter and then loading it in the vehicle before fleeing.
Interestingly, when they reached the ATM, some dogs of the neighbourhood started to bark at them, but they had come prepared.
They fed them biscuits and the animals were silent.
However, the thieves are yet to be identified and no arrests have been made so far.
The machine had around 7 lakh 88 thousand in it, police said.
The incident came to light this morning when bank officials arrived there to deposit money in the vending machine only to find the entire machine missing and only wires strewn inside.
"We were informed of the theft by the bank officials. The ATM's CCTV footage was lost as the hard disk containing the video was gone with the machine," said a senior police officer.
However, the CCTV footage of a nearby jewellery shop gave us details of the crime, he said.
Police said a case under appropriate sections of the IPC has been registered and efforts were on to nab the accused.
