A man armed with a sledgehammer smashed open a gaming machine before fleeing an Atlanta-area convenience store with thousands of dollars in cash, authorities say.
The incident occurred Saturday, March 12, at a Citgo station in Kennesaw, according to a police report obtained by McClatchy News.
Customers inside the convenience store said they noticed a man, dressed in a work jumpsuit with “a prominent bulge coming from his waistband,” as he sat down at one of the slot machines. Minutes later, he pulled out a sledgehammer, raised it over his head and whacked the machine three times, breaking it open.
“My customers were shocked, we were all shocked,” the owner of the store told WAGA.
The owner told police that the man briefly played the machine when he first came in before getting up and wedging a floor mat under the front door, propping it open. He then returned to the game, the owner said, and began hammering away at the machine.
Witnesses said the man reached in and grabbed “a large wad of cash” before running outside to a car waiting at the McDonald’s next door, according to the report. The store owner estimates the thief got away with about $7,000.
No injuries were reported, police said.
The gaming machine was registered to the Georgia Lottery Corporation, a Kennesaw police spokesman told McClatchy News.
The unknown man is wanted on charges of vandalism and theft from a coin-operated machine, authorities said.
Kennesaw is about 30 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.
