JOWAI: Unknown miscreants, suspected to be professional ATM lifters, made an unsuccessful attempt to loot an SBI ATM from Ladthadlaboh SBI branch, Jowai on the wee hours of Monday, thanks to the presence of mind of a generator operator and his wife.
The suspected miscreants were attempting to lift the ATM machines, when Samuel Suchiang, who is employed as a generator operator at the SBI branch and was sleeping on the ground floor of the building with his wife, woke up to noises and came out to check with his wife.
Narrating the incident later, Suchiang said he heard some noise at around 2:30 AM and when he came out of the house with his wife behind him, an unidentified miscreant who was standing outside the ATM, came running towards him armed with a digging bar.
“When I saw that one of the thieves was running towards me with a digging bar, I ran for my life towards my room. My wife who was behind followed me while screaming loudly after which the miscreants immediately fled from the scene,” Suchiang said.
Suchiang then informed the house owner who immediately alerted Jowai Police.
Police arrived at the spot at around 3:30 AM and recovered the monitor of the ATM dumped on the other side of the road but all other equipment had been destroyed.
According to Jowai Police, the ATM contained around Rs 18 lakh which the miscreants failed to loot.
In the last one year four cases of looting or lifting of ATMs have been reported in Jowai town alone.
