Progress Made In
ATM Theft Investigation
By JOE SEELIG

LAKE PLACID — Lake Placid Police Detective James Fansler said Thursday he is making steady progress in the investigation into the New Year’s Eve theft of an ATM machine from Highlands Independent Bank.

The machine was recovered New Year’s Day, with the money still inside.

A Clewiston man, Jesus Antonio Sanchez, 42, of 1806 Matthew Loop, was arrested Jan. 24, and charged with burglary of a structure or conveyance, grand theft more than $100,000 and committing grand theft using a vehicle to damage a property.

He remained in Highlands County Jail on Thursday in lieu of $31,000 bail. On Feb. 19, a warrant on a new charge of first-degree grand theft was added in-house by the Lake Placid Police. An additional $15,000 bail has been added on the new charge.

Sanchez’s arrest narrowed the focus of the investigation to locating a second suspect.

Witnesses who saw two men at a construction site behaving suspiciously, immediately and independently of each other identified Sanchez as one of the two men they saw that night, from a six-photo lineup, Fansler said.

An anonymous caller reportedly supplied information that led to a subject, whose name is not being released at this time. Through the tip, police located a maroon Ford Ranger pickup truck the police believe may have been used to transport the ATM from the bank to the construction site where the men tried unsuccessfully to open it.

Police were in the process of trying to match the truck’s tire tracks with tracks found at the two crime scenes. However, that truck has since been sold.
Also, a bed-liner is being examined to see if scuffs match marks that could have been made by the ATM.

Fansler said a local man purchased the truck the day the machine was stolen from a family member, and that while he also is from Clewiston, he lives in town and has family ties to Lake Placid.

Fansler said more will be revealed as to this subject’s involvement.

According to his arrest report, Sanchez worked briefly for the Gulf Group, Inc., a construction company doing the work at the site where the ATM was recovered by the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office and Lake Placid Police.

Superintendent, Ken Barry, for the Gulf Group, told investigators that Sanchez would have had access to the job site and the combinations to the locks. A locked combination lock was opened without force to access the construction site.

Barry told police that Sanchez was hired as a heavy equipment operator and had operated an excavator, like the one used at the Walgreens site to steal the ATM, and a bulldozer, like the one used to attempt to open the ATM vault.

He added that Sanchez was good at operating the equipment.

The excavator, owned by BJD Excavation, in Wauchula, was valued at $100,000. The ATM belonging to the bank and it along with its contents were valued at $103,565.