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A shadowy group of thieves has been ripping off small business owners in New York City – yanking ATMs out of the ground with vans and tow chains or carrying them out of stores by hand, video shows.
At least 49 businesses have been robbed so far in the spree, according to the United Bodegas of America (UBA) trade group, which is offering a $5,000 bounty on the bandits. Bodega is often used as the term for a convenience store or small grocery shop in the city.
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The NYPD said investigators believe the thieves are a group of three who are using stolen cars to conduct the crimes, which have been reported in at least 25 of the city’s 78 precincts.
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A pair of thieves drag an ATM out of a small business in New York City. The NYPD is on the hunt for three suspects in connection with at least 49 similar burglaries.(NYPD)
Radhames Rodriguez, the UBA president, told Fox News Digital that authorities need to go back to fully prosecuting low-level crimes and criticized the NYPD’s newly announced pursuit policy, which bans police from chasing suspects for non-violent and lower tier crimes.
“While we understand the need for balance in law enforcement, limiting pursuits to only suspects involved in violent felonies and misdemeanors sends a dangerous message to criminals who commit low-level crimes,” he told Fox News Digital. “These so-called ‘minor offenses’ are often the breeding ground for more serious crimes, creating a sense of lawlessness and impunity.”
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While the city has taken steps to counter rising crime, business owners see the new chase policy as a step backward.
ILLEGAL CHARGED WITH LIGHTING SLEEPING WOMAN ON FIRE PLEADS NOT GUILTY
Thieves rip the wall out of the side of a New York City store to steal an ATM from inside. The NYPD is on the hunt for three suspects in connection with 49 similar crimes, which also involve stolen vehicles.(UBA)
“Accountability needs to exist at every level of criminal activity,” Fernando Mateo, a UBA spokesman, told Fox News Digital. “Low-level crimes must not be dismissed as insignificant because they escalate. Today it’s shoplifting, tomorrow it’s armed robbery.”
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Wednesday that new vehicular pursuit guidelines would minimize the risk of collateral damage.
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According to the NYPD, 25% of car chases in 2024 led to a collision, property damage or injury. Two-thirds of them started with traffic stops where the suspect fled. Officers are no longer allowed to pursue under such circumstances.
The new rules limit officers to car chases only for serious crimes – felonies and violent misdemeanors.
“The NYPD’s enforcement efforts must never put the public or the police at undue risk, and pursuits for violations and low-level crimes can be both potentially dangerous and unnecessary,” Tisch said in a statement. “The advanced tools of modern-day policing make it possible to apprehend criminals more safely and effectively than ever before, making many pursuits unnecessary.”
NYC GROUP ROBBED 49 STORES ALL OVER CITY, STOLE ATMS, CASH: POLICE
New York Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch hold a press conference on Dec. 19, 2024 in New York City.(Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
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The ATM thieves remain at large.
Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant and a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the new guidelines do not actually present a major shift, however.
“The policy has always been that way – it’s up to the patrol supervisor to cancel any vehicle pursuit based on certain factors [as] written in the patrol guide,” he told Fox News Digital. “She’s putting it out there to let everybody know – it was already there, but to reinforce it eventually, the New York City Council will go full Chicago and ban all pursuits, including foot pursuits. It’s only a matter of time.”
Even as the pendulum appears to have begun swinging back toward a tough-on-crime approach across the U.S., he warned that some blue city leaders are not on board yet.
An NYPD vehicle is seen in Times Square in New York City on Oct. 24, 2022.(Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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“The messaging may have changed with the voting in regards to how people feel about what they want the police to do in the United States, but the cities are in firm hands with the defund the police, abolitionist crowd,” he said.
While the announcement on its pursuit policy has been criticized, the NYPD made another big change this week – upping patrols on overnight subway cars days after the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority told residents that transit crime was just in their heads.
“The NYPD will be rolling out the ambitious plan to put two officers on every overnight train in phases,” the department announced Thursday. “Phase 1 will officially begin on Monday and include the first 100 officers. Additional phases will be rolled out over the coming weeks with the expectation that the full operation will be complete by the end of the month.”
Police have released surveillance video showing two of the suspects hauling an ATM out of a store. The UBA also shared video showing them ripping a wall down with a chain attached to the back of a van before stealing another one.
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Police are asking for the public’s help identifying the thieves.
“It was reported to the police that between Thursday, September 19, 2024, and Thursday, December 26, 2024, there have been a total of 49 incidents involving three unidentified individuals who removed vehicles and license plates,” an NYPD spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The individuals then used these stolen vehicles to travel to commercial establishments where they forcibly entered and removed ATMs and other property. The individuals fled the locations in various vehicles.”
Here’s a brief look at 10 of the more notable mansions found in the Ocean State, listed in order of their values as assessed by their municipality.
Journal Staff
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Rhode Island is offering state employees up to $200 in reimbursement for costs related to refiling their taxes.
The reimbursement follows a series of payroll glitches and botched W-2 forms caused by a new state accounting system.
Problems with the new system included underpayments, overpayments, and incorrect employer information on tax documents.
The McKee administration is offering up to $200 to any state employee who incurred any additional expense in filing, and then having to refile, their taxes because of a series of botched paychecks and W-2s.
How did we get here? On April 15, also known as Tax Day, Patrick Crowley, the president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, called on the McKee administration to reimburse public service workers who had to refile their taxes because of a series of several payroll glitches.
On May 4, Thomas Verdi, the acting director of the Department of Administration, sent state workers a “Dear Colleagues” email that said:
“We recognize that the W-2 corrections released by the state may have resulted in additional tax preparation costs for individuals who had to amend their tax returns.
“To assist with this expense, the state will provide a one-time reimbursement for up to $200 for tax preparation and filing costs an employee incurred to amend a federal and/or state tax return directly related to the W-2Cs issued by the State of Rhode Island.”
More: How the new, $99M state payroll system put RI at ‘significant risk’
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The latest in a litany of financial issues with state’s payroll system
The Department of Administration has not yet responded to Journal inquiries about the projected cost to the state.
But the list of well-publicized problems goes on and on.
They have included underpayments, overpayments, botched W-2s that misidentified their employer as the “Rhode Island Umbrella Company,” and a problem with Health Savings Account contributions where the employer and employee contributions were reported separately, instead of combined and will require new W-2Cs to go out to impacted employees. according to Department of Administration spokeswoman Karen Greco.
And about $220,000 in union dues inadvertently wound up in employee paychecks instead of being withheld from them.
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Most, though not all, of the glitches were attributed to problems with the state’s buggy new $99 million finance and accounting system known as Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, which launched in late 2025.
A Department of Administration spokeswoman told The Journal on April 15 that “significant progress has been made to ensure employees who required paycheck corrections are made whole,” but Crowley said his members “shouldn’t pay for mistakes they didn’t make.”
“That is why we are calling on the state of Rhode Island to reimburse state workers who have incurred expenses for refiling their taxes or may have to do so before problems are corrected.”
Olivia DaRocha, a spokeswoman for Gov. Dan McKee, said at that time that the administration was looking at potential ways to support impacted employees.
The email from Verdi to state workers included an “affidavit” for state workers to sign to verify how much, if anything, additional they had to pay to amend their tax returns.
MONTPELIER — Vermont Humanities announced the winners of the Vermont Book Awards for outstanding literature in 2025 on Saturday at a cocktail and dessert celebration in Montpelier, attended by almost 200 readers, writers, and supporters of literature and the humanities.
The winners in each of their respective categories were Sasha Hom for “sidework” (Fiction), Helen Whybrow for “The Salt Stones” (Creative Nonfiction), Carlene Kucharczyk for “Strange Hymn” (Poetry), and Mima Tipper for “Kat’s Greek Summer” (Children’s Literature).
The celebration was held in the chapel in College Hall on the Greenway Institute campus. The room was full of writers, including previous winners of the Vermont Book Awards. The keynote speaker was Vermont Poel Laureate Bianca Stone, who is the author of multiple books of poetry, including “The Near and Distant World,” which came out in 2026, and “What is Otherwise Infinite,” which won the 2022 Vermont Book Award in poetry.
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The winners of the Vermont Book Award each received a prize of $1,000 and a specially commissioned art object created by Vermont artist Bess French, a nationally and internationally exhibiting sculptural artist, whose work is inspired by the natural world and found objects.
Vermont Humanities Executive Director Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup also formally announced Vermont Reads 2026: “Charity and Sylvia,” by former Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Tillie Walden. Based on the true story of an early 19th century couple in Weybridge, Vermont, Kaufman Ilstrup said, “Here at Vermont Humanities, we can’t think of a better way to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States, than to uplift this gentle story of two women who grew up and came of age with our Country.”
The Vermont Book Awards are annual prizes for outstanding literature in Vermont, presented by Vermont Humanities. The event was supported by Phoenix Books, the Vermont Arts Council, the Norwich Bookstore, Montpelier Performing Arts Hub, Greenway Institute, Susan Z. Ritz, and the Vermont Department of Libraries.
