3 charged with trying to steal from ATM in downtown Aurora during protests
Three men have been charged with conspiracy to steal from a bank after trying to steal money from an ATM in downtown Aurora during a night of protests and rioting, authorities said Thursday.
Fermin Ocampo-Tellez, 27; Diego Vargas, 24; and Michael Gomez, 19, all of Aurora, are charged with conspiracy to commit bank theft. The three were arrested Wednesday, and made initial appearances in federal court in Chicago.
They are accused of trying to remove the ATM from an enclosure in the drive-through area of the First Midwest Bank branch at 2 S. Broadway.
According to the federal complaint, they and others grabbed the machine to try to move it, and Ocampo-Tellez hit it repeatedly with a baseball bat.
They were unsuccessful.
Authorities said there was $89,740 in the machine at the time. The machine sustained $30,000 damage, according to the federal complaint.
At the time, crowds were damaging downtown Aurora businesses after a protest over the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Photographs in the federal complaint also show other people near the ATM.
Aurora police recognized the three, captured on the ATM's security video, from previous contact, the complaint states.
The maximum prison sentence is five years in federal prison.
Information on whether they are being held on bail, or when their next court dates are, was not available Thursday afternoon.