A Bobcat that appears to have been involved in a Christmas morning plot to steal money from an ATM in east Oak Ridge is tipped over on its side in a small ditch next to the safe, which had apparently not been opened.
A brazen attempt to steal money from an ATM in east Oak Ridge appears to have gone awry early Christmas morning and ended with a Bobcat tipped over on its side next to a safe that had apparently not been opened.
Many of the details are preliminary, and the Oak Ridge Police Department was investigating Wednesday morning.
The attempted theft caused extensive damage to a Y-12 Federal Credit Union automated teller machine at a small shopping center that includes the KARM Thrift Store and Tractor Supply Co. Crumpled ATM debris was scattered in a grassy field behind the drive-through credit union machine, and brown tracks led a few hundred feet away to the tipped-over Bobcat and the square safe, which appeared to have a chain wrapped around it.
The automated teller machine at this drive-through station near Tractor Supply appeared to be destroyed and the safe hauled a few hundred feet away before a Bobcat tipped over in a small ditch.
The Bobcat tipped over in a small ditch on Bogola Road, near the Oak Ridge Turnpike entrance to the Waste Connections convenience center.
Besides the ORPD, representatives from Y-12 Federal Credit Union, Waste Connections, and an automated teller machine company were at the scene at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. The attempted theft was believed to have occurred several hours earlier.
Crumpled debris from the ATM is scattered in a small field behind the machine, which is near the intersection of Bogola Road and Oak Ridge Turnpike on the east end of town.
ORPD officers were observed investigating near the ATM machine and Bobcat crash and also at Waste Connections behind the Tractor Supply shopping center.
Officials said this type of theft is not unprecedented but unusual for this area.
The ATM debris had been cleaned up by Wednesday afternoon.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
Bobcat tracks lead away from a vandalized ATM machine to a small ditch where a Bobcat tipped over next to an apparently unopened safe.
