Safe keeping

The money machine moguls at ATM Systems want to keep baddies from breaking their bank – again.

Sean Madigan

Staff Reporter

Gas stations in crime-ridden neighborhoods have cashiers wrapped in bullet-proof glass because they get robbed a lot.

ATM Systems, a Montgomery Village company that puts cash machines in fancy hotel lobbies and upscale grocery stores, doesn't.

Up until four months ago, blow-torch toting thieves managed just one successful caper during the seven years Roberto Sanson and his partners Gil and Ken Lovett have been in business.

The company has almost 350 terminals spread across the country, each one spitting out thousands of tens and twenties a month. So losing one machine in seven years isn't going to break the bank.

But during the last four months, burglars picked off three of ATM's terminals in three different states using three different tactics -- crow bars in California, sledgehammers on Long Island and precision drilling in Virginia.

Whodunit?

"We have no idea," Sanson says. " But we really can't sit back and do nothing. We have to be aggressive about this." And by aggressive, Sanson means defensive.

The company is in the process of beta-testing sophisticated security equipment that is heat sensitive (blow torches) seismic sensitive (drilling, sledgehammer) and even detects rocking (crowbars, chisels).

The security devices are installed inside the terminals. When the sensors detect too much heat, whacking, boring or slamming, the alarm goes off.

Sanson says ATM is not only planning to install this equipment in most of its terminals, the company also plans to get into the reseller business, where ATM would sell the security systems to other independent cash machine operators and financial institutions both large and small.

Despite the string of recent heists, 99 percent of ATM Systems' terminals haven't been broken into. Most of them are installed in Ritz Carlton and Marriott lobbies, bars and restaurants; high-end grocers Whole Foods and Fresh Fields and Trizec Property's Class A office building lobbies. ATM Systems houses its terminals in walls or custom cabinets with names like "Regency Mahogany" "Gentry Oak" and "Cognac Birdseye" and they are expensive.

ATM Systems' insurance carrier covers stolen cash from the recent robberies, but Sanson says the company still takes a hit whenever burglars strike. Replacing a terminal that's been drilled open costs between $6,000 and $7,000. The insurance company deductible runs another $2,500.

All told, the recent break-ins cost near $30,000, not including the money stolen from inside the machines. ATM Systems terminals in high-use locations start the week with between $140,000 and $160,000 inside. Others hold between $36,000 and $40,000. Protecting them against future attempts is going to cost far more.