A woman has been arrested after homemade explosives were used in a series of attempts to rob ATMs in Philadelphia.
Police in the city, its Fire Marshal’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are investigating four detonations at local businesses over the last fortnight.
The devices are made by stuffing a cardboard tube with a flammable element and a wick, police say.
Police are also hunting this man in connection with the latest explosion, which took place at a liqour store
The latest blast occurred at around 9:30p.m on Wednesday inside a liqour store in Kensington,CBS Philly reported.
Surveillance video from inside the store shows a woman leaving a device inside the ATM’s dispenser and then leaving shortly before it detonates.
‘I just heard a big boom, and I almost, like, fell off my seat,’ said neighbor Luisa Moreno.
A 34-year-old woman has been detained in connection with the latest explosion, though she has not yet been formally charged.
Surveillance footage shows the device being rolled into a Chinese takeout shop
The bomb goes off inside the shop, though the ATM was undamaged in the attack
Police say they also need help identifying a man, who they believe may be an accomplice.
Investigators are attempting to establish if there is a link between the four attacks and have released surveillance footage of an earlier attack, on a Chinese takeout.
‘If the objective, which we believe it is, is to breach the compartment where the money is held, this doesn’t work so stop,’ Philadelphia Police Captain Sekou Kinebrew said.
‘We believe she’s the person who actually set that device in the dispenser and the device that ultimately detonated.’
The first incident occurred on June 8, when a device detonated on a public ATM outside of Cinderella Cleaners on the 3900 block of North 9th Street.
Then on June 18, on the 700 block of East Thayer Street suspects threw a homemade explosive at the Chinese takeout shop’s ATM.
On June 19, an explosive device blasted open an ATM by Porky’s Point on the 3800 block of North 5th Street.