By rdnewsNOW staff

Thieves crash truck into Parkland Mall, steal two ATMs

Aug 2, 2018 | 11:59 AM

City Mounties are on the hunt for some brazen thieves who took drive-thru banking to a whole new level.

Three men drove a pickup truck through an entrance at Parkland Mall overnight and stole two ATMs.

Red Deer RCMP responded at about 4:15 this morning to find the suspect truck had driven through the mall doors at Entrance 5 on the north side of the mall close to GoodLife Fitness, then on to the food court area. From there, three male occupants were seen on security footage lifting two cash machines into the back of the truck, then driving along the mall’s north corridor before smashing through glass doors at Entrance 1 near Walmart and fleeing the scene.

Melody McKnight, Retail Manager for Parkland Mall in Red Deer says an event like this is certainly a surprise for two reasons.

“These kinds of incidents are fortunately very rare and we do have security measures in place to prevent exactly this type of theft,” she explains. “We have what’s called bollards that are in front of the entrance doors which prevent people from easily driving through. Now in this case, it was a rather large truck and it took them a few attempts but they did manage to knock one of the bollards out of place and gain entry.”

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McKnight says thanks to hard working staff, the mess was cleaned up well before stores opened this morning.

“Those doors will be boarded up until they can be replaced,” says McKnight. “The only store that wasn’t able to open today was actually Family Services. They run some great kids programs but they just wanted to do a thorough clean of the unit just to make sure there was no debris or any glass chips or anything like that left over before they opened to the public tomorrow.”

She adds a damage estimate is undetermined as of yet.

“The ATM machines that were stolen are provided by an outside source, they don’t belong to a specific bank,” McKnight explains. “I don’t know their value and I don’t know how much money was in them. The mall’s interior damage was minor in comparison to the damage to the doors obviously. So there’s some minor wall repairs and some floor repairs but very minor compared to the damage to the two entrances.”

She says they’re fortunate no additional damage was done.

“When they drove through the mall, they didn’t attempt to hit any of the furniture or do any further damage,” states McKnight. “They were obviously only after the ATMs.”

She says the most important thing for them is that no one was injured.

“We did have staff on site when this happened,” says McKnight. “We have a night crew and everyone is safe and unharmed.”

Police say the driver wore a white face mask and dark coveralls with reflective stripes while other two suspects wore dark hoodies and dark pants.

The suspect truck is described as a white diesel extended cab, a Ford F250 or F350, with significant body damage and a tie strap over the back. It was last seen driving eastbound on 67 Street.

If you have information about this crime, please contact Red Deer RCMP at 403-343-5575. If you wish to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or report it online at http://p3intel.com/. If your information leads to an arrest, you could be eligible for a cash reward up to $2,000.