Huntington Beach police are investigating after an ATM was stolen from a barber shop early Saturday morning, Jan. 21, authorities said.
Officers responded to the 19100 block of Brookhurst Street about 12:50 a.m. and found a shattered glass window and the ATM gone, Huntington Beach police spokeswoman Jessica Cuchilla said.
Surveillance video provided to OnSceneTV shows one man breaking a window, entering the barber shop and tying a rope around the ATM, then running outside to a white pickup truck.
As the driver pulls away from the building, the ATM tips over and breaks, but the rope slips off. Eventually, two men enter the barber shop and carry part of the ATM out and load it into the back of the truck before fleeing.
The timestamped video shows the suspect first entering the shop just past 12:45 a.m.
Similar thefts have been reported in the Inland Empire, including a tattoo parlor in Perris, Papa Joe’s Sports Bar in Moreno Valley and another barber shop in Loma Linda, according to KTLA. Others have also been reported in Colton and San Bernardino.
Authorities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties did not confirm investigations into the heists. It’s not known if they are related to the Huntington Beach theft.
Lana Mack, general manager of Papa Joe’s Sports Bar in Moreno Valley, told KTLA one of the suspects crowbars the window, enters, and puts heavy-duty straps around the ATM before the other suspect attempts to drive it out of the building through the window. That theft was also caught on surveillance video.
“The fact that it was done pretty quickly, you can see they had some practice and all of us pretty much agreed on that,” Mack told the station.