SUSSEX COUNTY, Va. -- Two thieves were caught on camera Thursday morning as they struggled to pick up and drag a cash machine into their car parked in a truck stop parking lot.
The theft was successful, however, as they were able to get the cash machine into their car, an act that was all caught on a nearby surveillance camera in Sussex County.
"We were very happen that nothing happened to anybody," said Andre LeBlanc of Petroleum Marketing Group.
Just before 7 a.m. Thursday morning, surveillance cameras captured a Dodge Charger circling the lot of Davis Truck Plaza in Sussex County off Interstate 95.
After the Charger circled the lot, it backed into a parking spot, and two men were seen getting out of the vehicle and standing around.
Then the theft happens.
"They had to pull it from the wall," Sussex County Sheriff's Office Deputy Ashleigh Wahnon said.
While the cash machine looks like an ATM, it is really a cash reimbursement machine.
"When somebody wins something, they go over and deposit their slip and get their funds from the machine," LeBlanc said.
Only the pair of thieves didn't count on how heavy the machine would be. At one point they switched sides, before they tried to walk the machine out into the hallway.
"They had to physically lift up this heavy machine and carry it out the door," Deputy Wahnon said.
After they got the machine to the doors leading outside, one of the thieves dropped the back end of the machine.
"They drug the machine across the sidewalk to get into the trunk of their vehicle," Deputy Wahnon said.
Sheriff's investigators said one of the suspects was a Black male wearing all-black clothes, his pants sporting an orange stripe down the side. He also wore black tennis shoes and black gloves.
The second suspect wore a blue hoodie, with gray sweatpants, and black tennis shoes.
Police say the car they were driving is unique - a 2011 to 2015 Dodge Charger with a purple roof, purple pillars, a gray hood, and the left and right panels of the trunk are gray.
Once the thieves were able to get the machine into the trunk they drove off.
At one point an employee of the truck stop can be seen running over to talk with the two men, who spoke briefly with him.
"He said they worked here," Deputy Wahnon said.
The owner of the cash machine as well as the truck stop are now offering a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the thieves.
Sussex County law enforcement say they were disappointed with the behavior of customers inside and outside of the store during the robbery.
"No one called 911 right away," Deputy Wahnon said. "They were all standing there, most people were onlookers. They didn't stand by to give a statement of what they had seen."
The Sussex County Sheriff's Office is asking the public to call the Crime Solvers line at 434-597-4400 if they have any information on the two suspects or the vehicle they were driving.
This is a developing story, so anyone with more information can email newstips@wtvr.com to send a tip.
