Warsaw Chief of Police Jason Wenberg reported that a truck was stolen from Maples Ford and used to attempt an ATM break in at Hawthorn Bank at 4:25 AM on January 28. Apparently, the same perpetrators also used a truck stolen from a local residence to break into an ATM at Community National Bank the week before. The attempt to steal the ATM at Hawthorn Bank was not successful, but a large sum was stolen during the earlier theft. Both trucks were recovered.
“Suspects also stole a truck on January 29, and broke into an ATM in Osage Beach, and we are talking to that city’s police about it,” said Chief Wenberg. “Also on January 29, there was a pursuit in Oklahoma when arrests were made, and we are thinking this is the same group that committed thefts in Missouri. We are investigating to determine if that is the case.”
Tom Maples, owner of Maples Ford, said that he got a call from the Warsaw Police and was asked if he had a truck the same color as the one used in the Hawthorn Bank attempted ATM theft. Maples told the police that it was missing, and he was informed that it was found abandoned behind the AT&T building by the Osage Bank.
“I thought that the truck might have been burnt,” said Maples. “It was an old Ford, non-chip, and all the locks had been broken. We have not had such a theft in quite a while.”
On January 30, www.ozarksfirst.com reported that four men had been arrested in Oklahoma for the burglary in Osage Beach. They are all young men in their 20's and are from Texas. Police in Osage Beach were able to identify a suspect vehicle after reviewing surveillance footage from the bank, leading to the arrests.
Because of the amount of money recovered, it is believed that the group burglarized other ATM's. The suspects are being held in the Bryan County Jail in Oklahoma with no bail.
There were numerous ATM thefts in Missouri last year. Facebook reported that an ATM located in Warsaw was broken into last December with a large sum of money stolen. www.kjluradio.com reported that on April 15, 2024, Oak Star Bank’s ATM along Highway 65 in Urbana was hit somewhere between 5:00 AM and 6:00 AM. A truck was stolen from Preston and used to break into the ATM, then left at the scene. The day before, a bank near the Missouri/Arkansas border was targeted, and the week before ATM's were hit in Versailles and Greenview. Suspects in these heists were linked to a crime ring in Houston, Texas.
