Photo credit Tim Jimenez/KYW Newsradio

ABOUT 50 of roughly half a million ATM bank machines in America are hit with explosives by robbers every year. This has not been a common type of crime here.

But things are changing.

In a five-day period during George Floyd riots this spring, 50 of the bank machines were attacked in Philadelphia alone. One looter died while attempting to blow up a machine. (His death did not provoke the grief-stricken to break out the dynamite. He just didn’t matter.)

And this week, police report 17 machines have been damaged or destroyed by explosives, with looters — apparently “suffering the emotional weight of learning about another Black life in America lost,” as Biden and Harris would put it — trying to get the money in the machines.

These ATM hits are not high-tech operations, but they require dynamite, planning and some skill. I guess some people keep explosives on hand. Nothing staunches grief like smoking cash.

According to WHYY, David Lott, a payments risk expert at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said this spring, “Not just anybody can go out and acquire these explosives, and you have to have some level of knowledge to best utilize those.”

WHYY continues:

Lott was also surprised by the highly public nature of the explosions, with attackers brazenly setting off charges right on the street in densely populated neighborhoods. In other countries, criminals have been more discreet when they blow up ATMs, targeting rural or remote places, he said.

“Generally the explosives attacks have been predominantly to more isolated machines, as you would expect, just because of the fear of detection,” Lott said. In Philadelphia, “perhaps they’re using the distraction of the protest marches and things of that nature in order to carry out their deeds.”

The Federal Reserve expert said he has never heard of people attacking ATMs as a political act and believes the thieves were simply after the money. Kap said there were no protests happening anywhere nearby when the ATM on her street was blown up.

But then looting is not about political expression. It’s about greed.

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