Stolen ATM, getaway truck found after smash-and-grab robbery

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Authorities believe they've located the ATM taken from a gas station in a smash-and-grab robbery this morning in northwest Houston. The getaway vehicle was found nearby.

The ATM was found in the 10400 block of J.L. Reaux. Pieces of the machine were strewn near the getaway vehicle, a white pickup truck, which appears to have been driven off the roadway into a field.

However, the thieves didn't hang around. They're still on the loose after the brazen early morning robbery in northwest Houston.

The robbery happened around midnight at the Exxon Star Stop on Mangum at Hempstead. Police say a Ford F-250 pulled up to the store and four men got out. They pushed an ice machine out of the way and then rammed the pickup into the store.

The store clerk, Damon Jackson, tells Eyewitness News he was in shock as the thieves made off with the hefty ATM.

"I couldn't move," he said. "I was dialing 911, but my hand was shaking."

Jackson wasn't hurt, and although he knows this kind of danger is part of his job, he says it shouldn't have to be.

"Everybody is trying to make a living," he said. "Them doing that -- it's not right."

If you have any information in this case, you're asked to contact police.