Police catches ATM Theft Gang from Uttar Pradesh

A special team from the Villupuram police has arrested four men from Uttar Pradesh who used a clever and unusual method to steal money from ATMs. The arrests were made on Saturday, June 14, 2025, following a detailed investigation.

The incident started when the police received a complaint about theft of ₹1.65 lakh from two ATMs located in Maharajapuram and Puducherry Road on June 12. Acting quickly, Superintendent of Police P. Saravanan formed a special team to find the culprits.

The team began their investigation by carefully going through CCTV camera footage from the ATM locations. They also checked the phone call records of possible suspects. Through this process, they identified four men from Uttar Pradesh — Sonu (23), Sanjay Kumar (24), Siva (27), and Lav Kush (25) — as the people involved.

According to the police, the gang had hired a taxi from Chennai to Villupuram to carry out the theft. After stealing the money, they returned to Chennai using the same taxi, and from there, they took a train to Bengaluru to escape.

However, the police team was already on their trail. They followed them by car and finally caught the gang members at the Bengaluru railway station. During the arrest, the police recovered ₹10,200 in cash, four mobile phones, one memory card, and four ATM cards from them.

The way the gang stole the money was quite unusual. Police said that the thieves tampered with the ATM machine by inserting a thin aluminium board inside the cash dispenser (the part where money comes out). This caused the cash to get stuck inside the machine. Later, when no one was around, they unlocked the ATM and took out the trapped cash.

This gang is believed to have used the same trick in ATMs in Bengaluru as well. After every theft, their plan was simple — take a taxi to a railway station, then catch a train back to Uttar Pradesh, making it hard for police to trace them.