Thieves Drain $175,000 From ATM in Matter of Hours, Triggering Manhunt on East Coast

Police say thieves drained a whopping $175,000 from an ATM on the East Coast in the span of only a few hours.

Authorities in Virginia say they’re looking for a group of thieves who stole the pile of cash in a sophisticated “jackpotting” scheme.

Jackpotting is when thieves gain physical access to an ATM and install malware or a “black box device” on it that lets them override its security defenses and dispense large amounts of cash on demand.

Police say video surveillance shows an unknown man approached an Apple Federal Credit Union drive-thru ATM in Fairfax on October 3rd.

He used a key to access the ATM at 10:18 p.m., although it is unclear exactly what he did to the machine at the time.

The man was spotted once again after midnight, this time bringing another person who accessed the machine and recorded the event.

At 2:00 a.m., an unmasked man then drove up to the ATM and began withdrawing cash from the ATM by holding his phone up near it without ever inserting a card.

Authorities say that man left and returned nine minutes later for a final time, continuing to withdraw cash, making away with $175,000 in total.

Police have released two photographs from the incident. They’re asking for the public’s help to identify the suspects or to learn more about what happened.

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