Federal officials say a Chicago man and an accomplice scored $155,000 in cash by robbing an ATM service technician in Calumet City earlier this year. In a criminal complaint, the FBI said Perry Maple III has links to two brothers recently charged with robbing armored cars in the south suburbs.
The ATM technician was repairing a drive-up cash machine at Citibank, 1779 River Oaks Drive, around noon on February 24 when he noticed a man mumbling something beside him.
In a flash, the technician was shoved to the ground and held at gunpoint by a man who told him to surrender his wallet and work keys, an FBI agent wrote in the government’s complaint against Maple.
“How do you remove these things?” the gunman asked the technician, referring to the ATM’s cash boxes.
While the robber kept the technician contained, Maple took two cash cassettes from the ATM, and both men fled, officials said.
The investigation gained traction in mid-April when Chicago police arrested a relative of two brothers recently charged with robbing suburban armored cars, Darrell and Corie Singleton, the FBI agent wrote.
The relative’s fingerprints were allegedly found on a vehicle used by men who robbed an armored truck in Homewood on Halloween, so the government had some questions for him.
In conversations with FBI agents, the man revealed that he knew about a group that had been organizing and committing armored truck and ATM service robberies since about 2016, according to the federal complaint.
He gave investigators details about the robberies that only law enforcement knew, including the group’s practice of using stolen Infiniti Q50s to commit the crimes. They chose that model because they are “easy to steal,” an agent wrote in court papers.
When the crew wanted to commit a robbery, they simply drove around in stolen cars until they spotted an ATM being serviced or an armored truck. Once they identified a good target, they quickly organized via Facebook or Instagram messages and pulled off the heist, said the federal agent.
The jailed relative identified Maple as one of the Calumet City robbers by the orange jacket one of the robbers wore.
The FBI secured search warrants for Maple’s phone, which pinged near the ATM robbery, and his Far South Side home, court records say.
According to the government, Maple told the FBI that he got a call from Darrell Singleton on February 24, asking if he was ready to commit a robbery. Singleton picked him up in a stolen Infiniti, and they started looking for an open ATM or armored car to rob, the FBI agent alleged.
He allegedly identified Singleton as the robber who held the guard at gunpoint while he, Maple, collected the cash boxes.
After the robbery, the men set the Infiniti on fire, and each pocketed about $75,000 in cash, the agent wrote.
Last month, federal prosecutors charged Singleton with participating in a Brink’s truck robbery that netted $1,025,956 in cash. Investigators were able to track him down because the armored car company had secretly stashed an Apple AirTag inside one of the cash bins they took, officials said.
The AirTag eventually stopped moving at a Calumet Park home, which police raided.
According to the FBI, investigators found “hundreds of thousands of dollars” hidden in the basement ceiling and under the attic insulation. There was a Brink’s deposit slip, Brink’s keys, Brink’s documentation, and, in the basement, a blue Brink’s bag with an AirTag inside.
