CROFTON, Md. — A report of a robbery brought police to the 7-Eleven store on Davidsonville Road in Crofton in the wee hours of the morning Saturday, where officers discovered the thieves had used the "jaws of life."
A tool typically utilized by emergency responders to free victims from car crashes, as ‘jaws of heist’—-ripping through the metal shell of the ATM to reach the cash inside.
“Two suspects entered the 7-Eleven,” said Cpl. Chris Anderson of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, “One of the suspects distracted and detained the employees of the business while the second came in with a hydraulic spreading tool and was able to gain access to the ATM and take the cash boxes out of the ATM.”
The two suspects wore masks and gloves and moved with precision.
The store manager says one threatened the two employees and forcing them from behind the counter to a back room, while the other used the tool to force open the machine and to grab the cash in less than three minutes time.
Police say robbers have been using these hydraulic tools, which are somewhat expensive, to commit other crimes in other regions of the state, but this is the first time they’ve seen it in Anne Arundel County.
“It seems like we are going away from the smash & grab where they were taking SUVs or pickup trucks to smash through the window and take the entire ATM machine,” said Anderson, “Now, they’re just using tools to break into them and take what they’re actually there for, which is the cash.”
Cash, which can number in the thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars, contained in a single machine.
