Armed Men Wheel Cash-Filled ATM Out Of Queens Convenience Store
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two armed men used a hand truck to wheel a heavy ATM out of a smoke shop in Queens.
As CBS2's Magdalena Doris reported, police say the men showed up at Ozone Howard Convenience Store at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, prepared for a payday.
They were armed with a silver handgun and a hand truck, and made out with $7,700 locked away in an ATM.
"This is a big machine, this is not a small machine," Kamal Ahmed said.
After buying soda and picking up a lotto ticket, surveillance video shows a man in a helmet guarding the target, while his accomplice in a bandana dropped change on the floor.
"He wanted to see maybe the ATM screwed inside of the floor or not," Harjeet Singh said.
It wasn't.
After a quick pull of the plug, the suspects wheeled a hand truck over and rolled their bounty out the door, leaving the employees and customers frozen in fear.
"I rush to him, and I thought maybe I could get it, but all of a sudden I see the gun," Singh said.
After a stumble, they wheeled their way over to a waiting getaway car - a green Jeep Grand Cherokee, and quickly dumped the ATM in the back.
Workers were wondering Tuesday, if there was something they could have done.
"It's not worth it, money we can get, but life we can only get once," Singh said.
The suspects have been described as Hispanic males between 25 and 35 years old. One was wearing a black sweater, blue jeans, sunglasses, a black t-shirt, and multi-colored sneakers.
The other suspect was wearing a white t-shirt, a white bandanna, black gloves, sunglasses, and dark-colored pants.
Police found the cracked, empty ATM and brought it back to the store. They have yet to find the heavy lifting thieves.
