Burglars try to break open ATM

Unidentified persons barged into an ATM kiosk of State Bank of India in BTM Layout and tried in vain to break it open using a gas cutter.

A senior police officer said the miscreants entered the ATM kiosk Thursday midnight after noticing that there was no security guard. They also tried to break the CCTV camera before cutting the locker. They closed the shutters from inside and started cutting the ATM kiosk but were unsuccessful and fled from the spot.

Since there was no emergency alarm installed in the kiosk, the bank did not get an alert. But the incident came to light around 5 am after passerby noticed the broken machine and alerted the Mico Layout police.

The police later called the bank official, Mahabaleshwara Chidambara Bhat, who is in charge of the ATM maintenance. Bhat told the police that they had deployed one security guard Mohid Miya during the day and he left around 9 pm after his shift ended. They had not hired a guard for the night shift.

The police suspect that the suspects may have observed that there was no guard at night.

The police have collected the CCTV footage in and around the ATM to identify the suspects. The police have also blamed the bank for negligence in not deploying a security guard at night.