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2nd Man Found Guilty In ATM Theft
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Published: August 7, 2008
Thomas Ludlum
LAKE PLACID - A Clewiston man was found guilty in the theft of an ATM machine torn from the wall of the Highlands Independent Bank branch using an excavator machine stolen from the Walgreens construction site on New Year's Eve in 2006 - 2007.
Thomas Paul Ludlum, 43, was found guilty and sentenced Monday to five years probation and ordered to pay fines, fees and court costs totaling more than $94,000.
Breaking it down, Ludlum must pay $1,048 in court costs, $500 investigation fee to the Lake Placid Police Department, $91,587.65 to Zurich N.A., an insurance company, and $1,000 restitution to Highlands Independent Bank for a DNA sample.
Ludlum was given six months to begin paying the restitution, according to a disposition document from the Highlands County Clerk of Courts.
As was previously reported, his co-conspirator in the theft, Jesus Antonio Sanchez, 43, of Clewiston, was convicted on June 16 in connection with the grand theft and sentenced to five years in state prison, six years probation and restitution.
The men stole the excavator at about 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2006 and used it to rip the ATM from the bank's wall, according to a Lake Placid Police Department complaint report.
The Highlands County Sheriff's Office received a call at about 9:15 p.m. the same night, about a burglary in progress at a construction site southeast of the town on State Road 70.
When deputies arrived they found the ATM machine's safe in the Harney Pond Canal. Two witnesses, who were near that location hunting, reported they heard loud noises coming from the construction area.
Two men were at the site, reportedly ramming one bulldozer into another. Later police deduced the men were trying to open the safe.
On Jan. 19, investigators spoke to the superintendent on the job site for the Gulf Group who told them Sanchez would have had access to the site because he knew the combinations to the locks on the gate, which were not forced open. Sanchez was a bulldozer operator, the report stated.
Witnesses identified Sanchez from a photo lineup as one of the men they saw on the stolen bulldozer.
On Jan. 31, while being interviewed at the Lake Placid Police Department, Ludlum admitted his involvement in the theft of the safe.
He told police Det. Sgt. James Fansler, that he was in town visiting with his mother. Sanchez reportedly convinced Ludlum the theft was a good idea.
Ludlum told Fansler that he and his accomplice used Ludlum's red Ford pickup truck to move the ATM safe from the bank to the construction site.
He told police when they were confronted by the witnesses they pushed the ATM, unopened, into the canal, where it was recovered.
To get away from the construction site, the men took S.R. 70 to County Road 721, where they cut through the Seminole Indian Reservation to State Road 78. Ludlum was issued a citation on C.R. 721 for speeding by officer David Lee of the Seminole Indian Police Department. The citation listed Jesus Antonio Sanchez as a passenger.
Ludlum told Fansler that "what he did (taking the ATM) was very stupid," the report stated.
Joe Seelig can be reached at (863) 386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com
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