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July 11, 2012

Man allegedly posing as ATM service tech arrested for attempted theft

The Port Arthur News

BEAUMONT — A Sugarland man is behind bars on a charge of possession of criminal instruments after allegedly posing as an ATM employee and accessing machines in Beaumont.

Police in Beaumont responded to the Iron Skillet, 5405 Walden Road at about 1:22 a.m. Wednesday, July 11 in reference to witnesses seeing a suspect in a theft from ATM’s inside the business that had occurred on July 2.

Witnesses told the officer the man had accessed the internal area of two ATM’s at that location using keys, then hooked up computer equipment and appeared to be serving the machines. It was subsequently learned that there was several thousand dollars missing from the machines. When this same suspect returned on July 11, he was recognized by witnesses and police were called, according to a press release from Beaumont Police Department.

The suspect claimed to be working for the company that owns the machines and had admitted to accessing them on July 2nd to service them, however, he had no identification on him. Company representatives advised the suspect does not work for them and did not have authorization to access the machines. It was also learned that prior to this incident, this same suspect was reportedly observed at a truck stop in Baytown accessing ATM machines there, and when confronted by a security guard, the suspect fled the scene.  It is believed at this time the man has possibly been committing large scale thefts from ATM's here and in other cities.

Police arrested Norman Baker, 33, on the charge and other charges are pending from BPD and other agencies.

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