A Philadelphia Police sting operation has taken down three suspects investigators believe may have been responsible for a string of violent sledgehammer attacks on gaming machines across the city.
The three suspects were arrested last week after police sources say plainclothes officers uncovered a car used in one of more than 30 sledgehammer attacks at local stores where gaming machines were seriously damaged and looted by the suspects.
The arrests came after the suspects allegedly targeted and smashed open “Pennsylvania Skills” gaming machines at local gas stations or stores where the machines have become extremely popular since the onset of the Covid19 pandemic and the periodic shut down of casinos across the Philadelphia area.
The bandits have also struck in Bucks and Montgomery Counties.
Police sources say after plainclothes officers identified the getaway car and one of the possible suspects, detectives obtained a warrant to place a GPS tracking device on the car, which was used in two back-to-back thefts last week.
Investigators then made their move and Highway Patrol officers stopped the suspects in the car and recovered evidence linking the trio to the most recent crime spree.
An employee at a local gas station where the suspects allegedly struck said the bandits utilized a lookout at the front door, then a second man to distract store employees, while a third suspect with a 3 foot long sledgehammer tipped over the gaming machines and broke them open with the sledgehammer.
The suspects then broke open cash boxes located in the back of the machines and made off with the cash.
Surveillance video at a Food Mart located inside a Broad Street gas station showed the suspects entering and heading right to the machines at the back of the store.
One suspect pulled out the sledgehammer and broke open three gaming machines leaving store employees and customers stunned.
” We don’t feel safe here,” one store employee told Fox 29 News “People are stealing here so you have to give use more protections.”
Lt. Dennis Rosenbaum of Northeast Detectives described the suspects this way.
“They’re very efficient, they’re very well planned, They’re meticulous. They’re in and out of the store in about a minute to a minute and a half,” Lt. Rosenbaum said.
Detectives say the so called “sledgehammer Bandits” have struck three dozen times since last May. They carry out the machine break-ins , grab the cash and make their escape.
“Sometimes it’s a couple hundred, sometimes it could be a couple thousand dollars,” one investigator explained. “They’re pretty intimidating. they have a look out, a getaway driver. They don’t mess around.”
So far the suspects have only been charged in a handful of the store thefts. The joint investigation is continuing.
