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Police: Theft suspects watched YouTube videos on how to steal from ATMs

Reginald Lamont Simmons, 25, was wanted for extradition from the Iberville Parish and St. Gabriel, La., and booked as a fugitive from another state -- which is a felony -- at the Clark County Detention Center, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.   (Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS)
By Jeff Burbank Las Vegas Review-Journal

A man facing charges in connection with a gang that tried to learn how to steal from bank ATMs by watching YouTube videos was arrested Saturday in Las Vegas on a fugitive warrant out of Louisiana.

Reginald Lamont Simmons, 25, was wanted for extradition from the Iberville Parish and St. Gabriel, La., and booked as a fugitive from another state — which is a felony — at the Clark County Detention Center, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Simmons was also arrested on a bench warrant on two charges of felony attempted theft of $25,000 to less than $100,000, and two misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit theft, based on Justice Court records.

He was to face the charges in court on Nov. 15, 2022 but he failed to appear and a judge issued the bench warrant, court records show.

The Las Vegas case stems from two alleged attempts on Feb. 22, 2022 by Simmons and six other members of a gang who together tried to rob two Chase Bank ATMs, police reported.

Based on bank security video footage, at 4:53 a.m. that day, a group of men in dark clothing and wearing gloves used crow bars to try and lift off the face of an ATM and pull the machine with a chain while driving a white Ford F250 pickup truck at a Chase bank at 5048 S. Boulder Highway, near the Sam’s Town casino.

The attempt did not work, and at 5:29 a.m., a citizen reported to police about seeing five men in dark clothing trying to pull an ATM out of the ground using a chain and a pickup truck at a Chase bank at 8565 W. Warm Springs Road.

The men were unsuccessful again and drove the truck, later discovered to have been stolen, to the rear of a cocktail lounge at 7260 S. Cimarron Road and abandoned it, police said.

Bank officials told police that the ATM on Boulder Highway contained about $74,000 at the time of the alleged attempted theft. The one on Warm Springs held $83,000.

Six of the seven men in the operation were questioned and two, including Simmons and Dayleon Garrett, confessed to the attempted thefts in Las Vegas and one in Utah, according to police.

In a statement given in September 2022 to an FBI agent, Garrett, 23, following his arrest in Utah, said that he and six other individuals drove from Houston, Texas to “rob some ATMs” in Las Vegas, according to a police report.

While Garrett drove his car to Las Vegas with two of the members, “they all watched videos on YouTube on how to rob Chase bank ATMs by pulling them using a truck,” police reported.

Garrett said one of the men found a Ford pickup, which he said he knew how to steal without the keys, near one the ATMs they targeted, according to police.

They drove to the ATM on Warm Springs and then the one on Boulder Highway, where they abandoned the truck with the chains still attached to the machine, he said.

The gang planned the alleged thefts while staying at the High Hat Regency motel at 1300 S. Las Vegas Boulevard and agreed to wear dark clothes and masks before going, police said.

Simmons, who remained in jail as of Wednesday, has a preliminary hearing in court set for Oct. 16. Garrett, facing the same charges as Simmons, is scheduled to be in court for his preliminary hearing on Dec. 11.