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PORTLAND, Ore. — Thieves stole an excavator from a construction site in Clackamas to pull an ATM out of a bank, smash it and steal the money inside.
This occurred around 4 a.m. Monday morning at the U.S. Bank on Southeast 117th and Southeast Sunnyside Road, according to construction workers who showed up to work after it happened to find an excavator from their construction site had been stolen and used in the robbery.
The heavy equipment was part of a storm main replacement project for the city of Portland. It had been left at the worksite near Southeast 117nd Avenue and Sunnyside Road Friday evening. When the crew returned Monday, it was gone — and they soon learned why.
"I was trying to figure out where the equipment was," Dan Irby, lead operator for Civil West Construction said. "That's when (the sheriff's deputies) approached me and they basically asked if I was looking for a piece of equipment, I said yes. They proceeded to inform me that it had been used in a bank ATM theft."
According to Irby, the excavator uses a universal key to access the cab, but needs a code for the keypad to start it. Irby said the thieves somehow bypassed the code and tampered with the control panel.
"I did notice after looking at the equipment that the fuse panel access board was open," Irby said. "They were able to access the computer and change the operator controls to a John Deere platform, which is completely different than the standard CAT setup we use."
Irby said he was surprised to see what had happened and the extent of the damage.
"It takes a lot of guts to do something like that," Irby said. "Just the fact that they had the foresight to change the equipment control panel in the machine itself to get into that bank, to break open the bank. They destroyed the ATM, they took the cash drawers out, so they knew not to just leave the ATM in one place and haul that away, which is traceable."
A KGW photojournalist captured video of the damage. The ATM appeared to have been completely smashed to pieces, with ripped off chunks of the U.S. bank building scattered along the parking lot ground. The thieves left the excavator outside of the bank. Irby said the cylinder broke on the heavy machinery, rendering it inoperable.
The theft has had a ripple effect on the construction project, shutting down the site for the day and pushing the work about a week behind.
"We're definitely behind, not only with the schedule, but just with the equipment costs and the replacement that it's gonna be to get the new piece of equipment in and having to start all over and all that," Irby said.
KGW has reached out to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office for more information. As of Monday afternoon, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office had not released further information about the investigation or whether any suspects have been identified.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Thieves stole an excavator from a construction site in Clackamas to pull an ATM out of a bank, smash it and steal the money inside.
This occurred around 4 a.m. Monday morning at the U.S. Bank on Southeast 117th and Southeast Sunnyside Road, according to construction workers who showed up to work after it happened to find an excavator from their construction site had been stolen and used in the robbery.
The heavy equipment was part of a storm main replacement project for the city of Portland. It had been left at the worksite near Southeast 117nd Avenue and Sunnyside Road Friday evening. When the crew returned Monday, it was gone — and they soon learned why.
"I was trying to figure out where the equipment was," Dan Irby, lead operator for Civil West Construction said. "That's when (the sheriff's deputies) approached me and they basically asked if I was looking for a piece of equipment, I said yes. They proceeded to inform me that it had been used in a bank ATM theft."
According to Irby, the excavator uses a universal key to access the cab, but needs a code for the keypad to start it. Irby said the thieves somehow bypassed the code and tampered with the control panel.
"I did notice after looking at the equipment that the fuse panel access board was open," Irby said. "They were able to access the computer and change the operator controls to a John Deere platform, which is completely different than the standard CAT setup we use."
Irby said he was surprised to see what had happened and the extent of the damage.
"It takes a lot of guts to do something like that," Irby said. "Just the fact that they had the foresight to change the equipment control panel in the machine itself to get into that bank, to break open the bank. They destroyed the ATM, they took the cash drawers out, so they knew not to just leave the ATM in one place and haul that away, which is traceable."
A KGW photojournalist captured video of the damage. The ATM appeared to have been completely smashed to pieces, with ripped off chunks of the U.S. bank building scattered along the parking lot ground. The thieves left the excavator outside of the bank. Irby said the cylinder broke on the heavy machinery, rendering it inoperable.
The theft has had a ripple effect on the construction project, shutting down the site for the day and pushing the work about a week behind.
"We're definitely behind, not only with the schedule, but just with the equipment costs and the replacement that it's gonna be to get the new piece of equipment in and having to start all over and all that," Irby said.
KGW has reached out to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office for more information. As of Monday afternoon, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office had not released further information about the investigation or whether any suspects have been identified.
