ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Suspected gang members from the Houston, Texas, area drove to O’Fallon, Missouri, to tamper with or disable an ATM and then waited to steal from the machine when the repairman arrived, St. Charles County authorities said.
According to the O’Fallon Police Department’s probable cause statement, the robbery took place around 11:30 p.m. on August 10 at the Bank of America branch on Fallon Loop Road, just off Highway K.
Police said the victim was performing maintenance on an ATM when a Toyota Camry arrived behind him, and he was jumped by three men. The driver, a woman, stayed in the vehicle.
One of the suspects, identified as Pharrell Dembry (age not provided), threw the repairman to the ground while another suspect stood over the victim and threatened to shoot him, police said. Dembry took the victim’s two cell phones and then had help emptying the money cassette from the ATM.
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The cassette contained $94,370 in U.S. currency. The cassette was loaded into the back seat before the suspects drove off.
The victim’s cell phones were tossed from the Camry a short time later in a residential area, according to the probable cause statement.
Dembry was arrested in Texas two days after the robbery while driving the Camry, police said.
The Camry, which was a rental, had a GPS device installed, which showed the vehicle was at the crime scene around the time of the robbery, police said.
Investigators said they obtained surveillance video from O’Fallon area gas stations showing the female suspect driving the Camry before and after the robbery. Dembry and the other two men were with her.
In addition, detectives uncovered surveillance video and sales receipts from a Walmart in Little Rock, Arkansas, documenting the group purchasing the clothing that the suspects wore during the ATM robbery.
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Police said the empty cassette was eventually located in a wooded area behind a Maryland Heights hotel that the four conspirators had rented. Dembry’s palm print was identified on the cassette.
According to police, the group traveled to the St. Louis area to commit specific robberies known as “jugging,” which involves damaging an ATM to cause a bank to dispatch a technician to repair the machine. The thieves then wait nearby and watch for the repair tech to arrive before attacking that person and stealing money from the now-opened ATM.
Police said Dembry was caught on surveillance video tampering with another ATM in St. Louis on the day of the robbery in O’Fallon.
The St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Dembry with first-degree robbery.
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