[zabzonk]

I remember the first ATMs I used back in the late 1970s. They were IBM machines with a red LED display, single-line, in a fairly heavily armoured, tiltable (to take into account people's different heights) slot.

These days we have big, full-colour LCD displays, without armouring. In Lincolnshire UK, where I live thieves just pull the whole ATM out of wall with a (stolen) JCB digger and take it away to be cut open at their leisure. That is if they can find one, of course. For both thief and bank customer ATMs are becoming increasingly rare - though not as rare perhaps as brick-and-mortar bank branches.

[Stratoscope]

Some of our SF Peninsula bank branches now have two tiers of ATMs:

• The traditional through-the-wall machines that you can access from outside.

• Inside the branch, heavy duty standalone machines that dispense much more cash and more of a variety of bills. These are only accessible when the branch is open, unless you break glass.

[zabzonk]

Our friendly Lincolnshire ATM thieves are using serious demolition equipment. A little thing like a brick wall is not going to stop them.

You might almost admire them if they were like Robin Hood, but they are coke dealing f*ckwits, as is obvious when they come to trial.

[jonathantf2]

In my hometown someone did this, take half the wall of the Nationwide branch out along with the ATM. Someone also tried to get a free standing one from inside a shop but just ended up destroying the frontage and not taking it home with them.

[TMWNN]

Relevant: TIL that ATMs are robbed with explosives. Criminals fill machines with propane or acetylene then ignite the gas, or use external bombs. Germany (where 60% of attacks succeed) is Europe's #1 target; landlords don't like to lease to banks with ATMs, because blowing them up endangers other tenants. <https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1im37e4/til_t...>