Truck drives through Red Deer mall, hauls off 2 ATMs in brazen smash and grab

Three men in a pickup crashed into a Red Deer mall Thursday and drove through the corridors to the food court, before loading up two ATMs and leaving through a second entrance.

The theft caused significant damage to the Parkland Mall, say RCMP.

RCMPwere called to a break-in in progress at the mall at 4:15 a.m. They determined the suspectsentered the mall through the doors at Entrance 5, drove through to the food court area,lifting two ATMsinto the back of the truck then smashed through glass doors at Entrance 1 and drove off.

Thieves broke barricades

Melody McKnight, the retail manager at Parkland Mall, said this type of crime is rare in Red Deer but it's happened twice in the past six months.

Thieves crashed a truck into a different mall in March and stolean ATM.

McKnight said she's especially surprised because the Parkland Mall has bollards, or metal posts, in front of every entrance.

"It prevents people from driving through the doors because it does significant damage to your vehicle if you hit one of those," McKnight told CBC's Radio Active.

"But in this case, it was a very large, very strong truck and it took them a few tries, but they did break one of the bollards off and gained entry to the mall."

McKnight said the thieves used the truck to knock the bolts loose that attached the ATMs to the ground before hauling them off.

She said it's not clear how much money was in the ATMs.

Police continue to search for the threesuspects.The driver was wearing a white face mask and dark coveralls with reflective stripes. The two otherswore darkhoodiesand dark pants.

The truck,described as awhite FordF250orF350, with a diesel motor and extended cab, was last seen driving east on67thStreet.

The truck had significant body damage and a tie strap over the back.