New Jersey

Pickup Truck Smashes into NJ Liquor Store in Brazen ATM Robbery

A pickup truck smashed through the front of a Clifton, New Jersey liquor store in a brazen smash-and-grab overnight, crashing so violently that it dislodged the ATM in the front of the store, surveillance video shows.

Employees at the Liquor Locker on Allwood Road showed NBC 4 New York the video of the robbery, which happened just after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Two men are seen peering in through the windows, apparently getting a sense of the store layout. Then a pickup track reverses through the front of the store, dislodging the ATM.

The two men drag the machine into the cab of the Ford F-250 or 350 pickup truck and speed off in the direction of Route 3 before Clifton police pull up less than two minutes later. 

Employee Ramon Rivera was stunned by what he saw when he arrived at the store. Shattered windows and broken wine bottles were strewn everywhere. 

"I thought it was an explosion, that someone just blew up the place," he said.

Construction workers were spending the day Tuesday boarding up the store of the store, and employees inside were sweeping, mopping and sorting through what was ruined -- and trying to find what can be salvaged.

The thieves took the ATM with an unknown amount of cash inside, but they didn't steal any liquor. 

"These guys were professional and obviously they don't care," said Rivera.

Clifton police said this is the first smash-and-grab robbery of its kind there, but just 12 miles away in Newark, there were similar cases two months ago that were also caught on camera. In a Nov. 14, 2014 case, two men crashed a stolen truck into a dry cleaners on McCarter highway to steal the ATM there. Thieves tried the same tactic at the Applebee's in Newark but were unable to move the ATM.

Clifton police are investigating whether the robberies are linked. 

-- Jen Maxfield contributed to this report 

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