Alaska man finds creative way to steal ATMs and is hilariously busted

A man in Anchorage, Alaska, has been charged with theft of multiple bank ATMs, which authorities say he managed to steal using a front-end loader.

Federal prosecutors have charged Adrian Cheyne Turnbow with bank larceny after he was caught taking an ATM with a front-end loader. The FBI is investigating three other incidences in which ATMs have been taken using heavy machinery since Dec. 25.

According to a report by the Associated Press, Turnbow was caught after an Anchorage security guard called the police when he saw Turnbow allegedly attempt to use a front-end loader to steal a bank ATM.

“Responding officers spotted the loader attempting to flee,” reported the Associated Press. “The loader became stuck in a parking lot embankment and police detained the driver who was wearing a ski mask and carrying a loaded handgun.”

On March 1, three others in Big Lake, Alaska, were arrested in connection to a string of ATM thefts. At the Big Lake property was a truck owned by Turnbow, who claimed the vehicle had been stolen.

However, the Alaska Dispatch News reported on Friday there appears to be a clear connection between Turnbow and the three arrested in Big Lake. Police reports indicate that during interviews with the three Big Lake suspects, at least two, including Jerd Thacker, identified Turnbow as one of the leaders of the group, and according to ADN, “The charging document in Thacker’s case says police found machines from both unsolved [Big Lake] cases at an excavating company Turnbow used to work for.”

Currently, Turnbow has only been charged with the ATM theft connected directly to his arrest, but investigations are still ongoing.

An FBI official’s report claims all four suspects are heroin users, which may explain Turnbow’s decision to try to flee from the police in a slow-moving front-end loader.