WHITE CENTER, Wash. — Monday morning, as people drove by Shorewood Grocery on the corner of 26th Avenue and 106th Street in White Center, they took a moment and gazed at all the damage.
Joe Dredd says he lives just down the street.
“It’s a two-minute walk from my house, from my door to their door,” said Dredd.
In the 17 years he’s lived in the neighborhood, he says the convenience store has never been hit, but at 12:46 a.m. Sunday, surveillance cameras captured three suspects who showed up in a white pickup truck.
They quickly pull the front doors off, go inside, find the ATM, and yank it out.
By 12:48 a.m. — just two minutes later — they are gone. It all happened so fast that you don’t even see the ATM fly out.
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“They most likely have done this before. They seem to have a system down on how they were going to do it, rolled in and out in 3 minutes,” said Dredd.
The man who shared the surveillance footage with KIRO7 says police told him the truck was stolen.
Dredd says he’s not surprised by this at all because he’s also a victim of auto theft.
“I had a work vehicle that was stolen on the side of my house a few years back, and this stuff happens and when you’re on an arterial, people are going to find you,” said Dredd.
Going forward he says placing the ATM in a different location may deter thieves.
“If I were them, I would put the ATM more in the back of the store. I’ve been to other convenience stores and the ATM isn’t that close to the (front of the) store, probably for this reason right here,” said Dredd.
Suspects, damage at White Center grocery store Images from security video show a truck arrive. The driver stays in the truck while 2 men attach ropes or chains to the door and then the ATM inside the Shorewood Grocery.
Suspects, damage at White Center grocery store Images from security video show a truck arrive. The driver stays in the truck while 2 men attach ropes or chains to the door and then the ATM inside the Shorewood Grocery.
Suspects, damage at White Center grocery store Images from security video show a truck arrive. The driver stays in the truck while 2 men attach ropes or chains to the door and then the ATM inside the Shorewood Grocery.
Suspects, damage at White Center grocery store Images from security video show a truck arrive. The driver stays in the truck while 2 men attach ropes or chains to the door and then the ATM inside the Shorewood Grocery.
Suspects, damage at White Center grocery store Images from security video show a truck arrive. The driver stays in the truck while 2 men attach ropes or chains to the door and then the ATM inside the Shorewood Grocery.
Suspects, damage at White Center grocery store Images from security video show a truck arrive. The driver stays in the truck while 2 men attach ropes or chains to the door and then the ATM inside the Shorewood Grocery.
Suspects, damage at White Center grocery store Images from security video show a truck arrive. The driver stays in the truck while 2 men attach ropes or chains to the door and then the ATM inside the Shorewood Grocery.
Suspects, damage at White Center grocery store Images from security video show a truck arrive. The driver stays in the truck while 2 men attach ropes or chains to the door and then the ATM inside the Shorewood Grocery.
White Center smash-and-grab burglary Burglars damaged the storefront of a White Center grocery store while stealing an ATM early Monday. (KIRO 7 News)
White Center smash-and-grab burglary Burglars damaged the storefront of a White Center grocery store while stealing an ATM early Monday. (KIRO 7 News)
White Center smash-and-grab burglary Burglars damaged the storefront of a White Center grocery store while stealing an ATM early Monday. (KIRO 7 News)