TACOMA, Wash. — Thieves used a truck to smash into the front of a Tacoma Walgreens and steal from an ATM inside Monday morning.
The Tacoma Police Department (TPD) responded just before 3:30 a.m. to the 2000 block of Sixth Avenue and found an abandoned truck that had been used to smash into the front of the Walgreens.
Officers discovered that the thieves had then broken into the ATM inside the business, stealing an undisclosed amount of money before leaving in a second vehicle.
The regional manager for Walgreens estimated the damage to the Tacoma store at around $50,000.
No further information has been released, and the investigation is ongoing.
This is the latest ATM theft in what has become a rising trend throughout the Puget Sound region.
Last week, thieves smashed into the front of a Walgreens in Renton in an attempt to steal the ATM inside. They failed to get the machine but left behind heavy damage to the building.
In early March, thieves smashed through the front of a small market in Kent to steal the ATM there. Roughly a month earlier, a similar theft took place at a gas station in White Center.
On Feb. 20, Ken’s Market in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood was hit by ATM thieves who used a forklift to remove the machine. The suspects loaded the ATM into the back of a pickup truck and fled.
The TPD is also investigating a homicide Monday morning in the east part of the city after a man was found shot to death in a parking lot. It’s TPD’s second homicide investigation in less than 24 hours.