Thefts of automated teller machines (ATM), which plagued Central Alberta last summer and fall, have spread to the province's northeast but RCMP insist the desperate burglars are not the same ones who terrorized this region.
And that is because this area's burglars have finally been caught, said Innisfail RCMP Cpl. Jeff Hildebrandt.
"They were. I know our file was concluded in mid-December, about a month and a half after the last occurrence,î said Hildebrandt.
From last summer to Oct. 29 Mounties across Central Alberta investigated up to a dozen ATM theft incidents in Blackfalds, Rimbey, Stettler, Bashaw, Lacombe, Caroline, two in Spruce View and four in Red Deer. The last one was on Oct. 29 in Spruce View.
Each of the thefts involved culprits smashing their way into a business by backing up into the building with a stolen pickup truck. The burglars then tied a rope around the ATM and violently pulled it out, leaving a messy scene of destruction behind.
The closest RCMP in Central Alberta came to nabbing the suspects was back in the early morning hours of Aug. 17 when an ATM was violently yanked out from a Caroline fast-food restaurant.
Mounties pursued the suspects at high speeds all the way to Sylvan Lake. Spike belts were deployed during the pursuit but the suspects managed to elude police on the highway and in Sylvan Lake where they left their stolen vehicle and fled on foot.
The ATM thefts continued to stump Mounties for months but Hildebrandt said the crimes were resolved in the region before Christmas.
However, while he knows the culprits responsible for the ATM thefts in the region have been caught, he can't offer details because their arrests were made in another jurisdiction on other criminal matters.
"They were connected to a lot of other activities. They have been charged in relation to other occurrences but not in relation to ours. We have them identified. We have concluded our file,î said Hildebrandt. "Our file does not identify them as charged. We don't really have a charge on our matters, technically. But we do resolve them by way of a global police environment and those suspects were identified charged in other files.î
Meanwhile, in northeast Alberta RCMP have issued a provincewide notice they are investigating a series of ATM thefts from multiple communities since Jan. 10.
RCMP said culprits used stolen trucks to commit the break and enters in the early morning hours of the day, targeting businesses with stand-alone ATM machines in the communities of Lac La Biche, Cold Lake, Cold Lake First Nation, Frog Lake First Nation, Lloydminster, Marwayne, Glendon and St. Paul.
"Every area, every region has had them (ATM thefts) and they tend to target the more isolated locations where there is less police presence,î said Hildebrandt, adding he could not comment on whether the northeastern Alberta incidents were in any way connected to the past thefts in this region.
