5 men arrested on suspicion of using chain and pickup to drag away Roseville bank's exterior ATM

Several people suspected of attaching a bank's exterior ATM with a chain to a pickup truck and dragging it away were arrested a few hours later early Tuesday after a standoff at a nearby hotel, officials said.

Roseville Deputy Police Chief Joe Adams told the Star Tribune the FBI is looking into this incident because it has the hallmarks of a Texas-based "Hook and Chain Gang" that has been pulling off these heists elsewhere in Minnesota and other states.

Police responded about 4 a.m. to the alarm at Great Southern Bank at 1875 County Road B2 and saw a pickup yanking an ATM out of the ground, Adams said. The driver fled and soon crashed, allowing police to capture one of the suspects, but the other four ran and holed up in the nearby Key Inn in the 2500 block of N. Cleveland Avenue, the deputy chief said.

That standoff ended about 7:30 a.m., with the four arrested without further incident, Adams said. The ATM was recovered, he noted.

The Ramsey County jail log lists the men, ranging in age from 23 to 26, awaiting potential charges of felony theft and criminal damage to property. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged.

This criminal tactic has been employed in recent years with increasing prevalence and was used in August and September in cities including Green Bay, Wis., Columbus, Ga., and Decatur, Ala.

A national business consulting firm based in Oregon, Cook Solutions Group, said this method of theft typically occurs between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. when there are fewer people around.

"These attacks can cause significant property damage and financial losses," Cook Solutions wrote on its website in September. "To prevent hook and chain ATM attacks, various strategies and security measures are deployed, such as installing anti-ramming bollards, using reinforced ATM enclosures and enhancing surveillance in ATM locations."