Criminals rarely target a cash machine on the high street or in shopping centres, Instead, they target more remote cash machines with motorway access.
Cash machine operators also spend large sums of money on security annually with the cost varying hugely according to your site.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), who have taken over the case have detained five employees from the Barclays bank and G4S security group over a string of robberies during the Easter weekend that left Barclays Bank short of at least Sh11 million
Police reports show that the theft may have been planned as the machines were either unmanned, tampered with or the CCTV obstructed.
According to the reports, tactical thieves stole Sh11.6 million from three ATMs during three different incidents.
Among the issues the detectives want to solve is how the four ATMs were broken into without the security guards, who are normally located within the premises, noticing.
Then again the robberies were all reported more than 24 hours after they happened, raising questions on the possible involvement of the security guards.
Another issue the detectives want to understand is how the ATMs were all robbed hours after being reloaded with money.
In the first case, Sh6,290,000 was stolen at Mutindwa, Nairobi, at an unspecified time. According to a police report, the occurrence was reported at 2pm on Saturday by a G4S officer by the name George Ogiro.
The machine had been loaded with Sh7 million on Thursday but on Saturday, Sh6,290,000 was found missing.
The second incident was also reported by a G4S officer on Saturday at 3.30pm. The case was reported at Industrial Area Police Station by Nickson Oluoch.
The officer said in the report that a sum of Sh1 million had been withdrawn at the Mater Hospital ATM at 7.30am.
The same case was witnessed at the Kenyatta National Hospital ATM where some Sh4.315 million was stolen the same day.
The case was reported by Mr Wilson Mzedi, also a staff at G4S. The ATM had been tampered with, “they got a report from the Kenyatta National Hospital Barclays Bank ATM system that it was not working,” states a report from the Capitol Hill Police Station, adding that the incident may have occurred at 9pm on Friday.
Additionally, Barclays is under pressure to explain why two of the ATMs did not have CCTV cameras.
Nairobi police boss Reuben Ndolo said he did not know about the fourth ATM raid, further raising questions about the nature of the robbery.
“I only know of three ATMs. No one has told us about the Kenya Cinema one,” he told the Nation.
“Anyway, the investigation has been taken over by the DCI, so I can’t comment on other issues about the robbery,” he said.