This is just bizarre:
The heist, as described in an FBI affidavit filed last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Umatilla County, allegedly began the morning of Nov. 29. About 7:30 a.m., McElvain walked into Wal-Mart with a handcart. The ATM, however, was too heavy. Ten minutes later, he returned with a friend, Shane Giese. The two men wheeled the tarp-wrapped ATM out of the store.I really like that he could leave it in the parking lot and return later, without anybody questioning what was going on.As they strained to lift the machine into a Nissan Pathfinder sport utility vehicle, part of the tarp lifted. Giese glanced in. It was no gun safe, as McElvain had told him earlier. Giese refused to help any further, forcing McElvain to leave the ATM on the parking lot curb, the affidavit said.
The job, it seemed, would require a more specialized device.
The next day, authorities visited McElvain's parents. McElvain's mother, Ida, told authorities her son and another man had been at their La Grande home the previous day working in their shop most of the afternoon. Ida McElvain, the affidavit said, couldn't understand why her son had taken the popcorn cooker, a large, heavy cauldronlike object, off his tilt trailer.
Posted by Kevin on March, 10 2005 at 11:06 AM
