Gang accused of ATM thefts allegedly learned how to steal money from YouTube videos

A gang of wannabe thieves accused of attempting to steal money from Chase Bank ATMs across the country apparently learned how to get the money from the machines by watching YouTube videos.

Six of seven Houston, Texas men have been questioned by the FBI in the string, and two of them — Reginald Lamont Simmons, 25, and Dayleon Garrett, 23 —confessed to attempted thefts in Las Vegas and Utah, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Following his arrest in Utah, Garrett told the FBI he and six others drove from Houston to “rob some ATMs” in Las Vegas back in February 2022.

While he was driving his friends in his car, Garrett told the FBI in a statement, “they all watched videos on YouTube on how to rob Chase ATMs by pulling them using a trick.”

The Post has reached out to Alphabet, the parent company of YouTube, for comment.

Speaking of the robbery attempts in Las Vegas, Garrett told agents one of his accomplices found a Ford pickup truck — which he said he knew how to hotwire.

The gang then allegedly tried to rob two Chase Bank ATMs in Las Vegas on February 22, 2022 — but were unsuccessful in their attempts.

Security footage caught a group of men in dark clothing and wearing gloves using crow bars to try and lift off the face of an ATM near Sam’s Town Casino, and pull it with a machine while driving the white Ford F250.

When that attempt did not work, the group apparently decided to move onto another ATM in the area, according to Metropolitan police.

Authorities said a citizen reported seeing about five men in dark clothing trying to pull an ATM at another Chase Bank off the ground using a chain and a pickup truck.

But that effort, too, proved unsuccessful, and the stolen pickup truck was later found abandoned near a cocktail bar with the chains still attached to the machine.

Both Simmons and Garrett have been charged with felony attempted theft and two misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit theft in Nevada.

Simmons was also wanted for extradition from Iberville Parish and St. Gabriel, Louisiana, and was booked in Nevada as a fugitive from another state — a felony.

In Iberville, a group of masked thieves were caught on surveillance footage in 2019 using cables and a white pickup truck to steal an ATM.

They were seen in the footage obtained by WBRZ smashing out the front window of a Chase Bank and hooking the machine up to an older-model Chevy.

Two members of the gang then used the truck to rip the ATM through the front window and load it into the back of the vehicle.

Just a few months later, five other men from Houston were arrested in Baton Rouge for trying to steal ATMs from Chase Banks using a white pickup truck there, according to BR Proud.

Similar thefts were also reported in Forsyth County, Georgia, where a group of men from Houston were caught dragging an ATM through the parking lot of a Chase Bank in July 2020.

The suspects attempted to flee on foot into the woods, but investigators set up a perimeter and used police dogs to hunt them down — and within an hour they were captured, according to FOX 5.

But just about 24 hours later, two more people from Houston were arrested near another Chase Bank location, where investigators found tools and heavy chains — just like the ones used in the other theft — along with directions to other banks in the area.

“They’re all from Houston, Texas — which seems to be a running trend with some of the ATM thefts we’ve been having around here,” Forsyth County Sheriff’s Det. Ben Norton told FOX 5.

The local news channel did not name the suspects, though one has a striking resemblance to Simmons.

It is unclear what theft they had confessed to in Utah, but police in West Valley reported a robbery of a Chase Bank ATM in December 2021, when unidentified suspects arrived at the bank in a stolen vehicle, attached a chain to the ATM machine to access cash, and took off with an unknown amount of money, according to KSL News Radio.

The Post has reached out to the FBI for more information.

Simmons is due back in court in Las Vegas on October 16, while Garrett is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on December 11.