Two thieves were caught on video using a stolen government vehicle and tow harness to make off with an ATM early Sunday from a gas station in Kailua Village.
The brazen heist took just over 5 minutes with security cameras first capturing sight of the white, Ford F-150 pickup truck pulling into the Dixson 76 service station at 3:31 a.m. from Hualalai Road. The vehicle, carrying two people, circles the gas station and idles for a couple of minutes before positioning itself on the north side of the ATM about 3:35 a.m.
Both suspects then hop out of the vehicle, and work to quickly tie a prepared towing harness around the ATM. The driver, seen wearing a reflective safety vest and shorts, and passenger then hop back into the truck and give the vehicle some gas, pulling the standalone ATM off its bolts from the ground.
Once the machine’s free from its anchor, both suspects exit the vehicle and work to load the ATM into its bed, albeit with some struggle, before speeding out of the gas station onto Hualalai Road and making a left onto Kuakini Highway. The white truck, which cut around a vehicle waiting at the intersection, is last seen speeding north on the highway.
Bob Dixson, owner of the gas and service station at the corner of Kuakini Highway and Hualalai Road, said it appeared the thieves had planned the crime. Nothing else at the station was targeted, just the ATM, he added.
“They were pretty smart about this … if you were to see the video you could tell they knew exactly what they were doing,” he said. “They came in there, they drove around the station, they pulled in front, backed up, chained the thing and knocked the thing over and then loaded it into the back of the truck.”
He said that the operator/owner of the ATM had filled the machine with currency on Friday. On Tuesday, he was still waiting to hear how much money the thieves made off with.
He added he was told by responding officers that a similar incident occurred recently at Kopiko Plaza in Kailua-Kona. Both ATMs are operated by the same person, Dixson said.
“I’m glad the station wasn’t open and my employees weren’t here because lord knows what could have happened,” Dixson said of the brazen heist. “I’m concerned because more and more we’re seeing this kind of thing and I would just love to see some more policing to prevent it.”
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture on Tuesday confirmed the vehicle seen in the video surveillance as belonging to its Hawaii Island fleet. According to staff, the F-150 truck was stolen during a break-in Dec. 26 at the department’s Plant Pest Control Office in Hilo over the Christmas holiday weekend.
The department reported the incident upon returning to work on Dec. 27, noting police informed the agriculture officials on Tuesday that the truck was “recovered.”
Neither the Hawaii Police Department’s Area II Criminal Investigations Section nor a spokesperson responded to requests for information on the case, as well as the reported incident at Kopiko Plaza, as of press-time.