The Drive-Thru ATM at Diamond Heights Plaza is Gone, Because Someone Tried to Steal It

A recent attempt to rip the ATM out of the parking lot at the Diamond Heights Safeway was unsuccessful, but the thieves damaged the machine so badly it had to be removed. Yet Bank of America insists they will replace the ATM.

There aren’t many drive-thru ATMs left in San Francisco, and as of right now, there is one fewer. A trip to the Diamond Heights Shopping Center, which is home to a Safeway, a Walgreens, and a few other specialty shops, also currently shows a very unusual sight. Where there used to be a drive-thru Bank of America ATM, you will now see an empty space where an ATM used to be.

This seems to be what’s described in a late January Reddit post, with the photo seen below. It's the aftermath of an ATM theft attempt, one of the latest brazen attempts to haul off an entire ATM full of cash.

The San Francisco Police Department confirms to SFist that this was indeed an attempt to knock over and haul off the ATM at the Diamond Heights Shopping Center.

“On January 26, 2024, at approximately 3:35am, San Francisco Police officers responded to the 5200 block of Diamond Heights Blvd on a report of a burglary,” SFPD public information officer Robert Rueca tells SFist. “Upon arrival, a witness told officers that unknown suspects attempted to break an automated teller machine (ATM) machine by using their vehicle to ram into it. The suspects then entered another vehicle and fled from the scene.”

And as the SF Police Officers Association adds, this was a truly failed theft attempt. The would-be thieves damaged one of their own cars trying to smash the ATM out of place. “The ATM stayed and so did one of the crew’s vehicles as it got stuck in the process,” that union tweeted after the incident.

But a new drive-thru ATM will be coming to the Diamond Heights Shopping Center. A Bank of America representative for California tells SFist that “We will be replacing that ATM.”

Still, the rash of ATM theft attempts is very real. In October, we saw an ATM hauled out of Clooney’s Pub on Valencia Street, and in December, thieves yanked an ATM out of a corner store at Valencia and 16th Streets. KGO reported later in December that SFPD said they've had “about 15 incidents” of ATM theft attempts, and since then, there was also theft of an Outer Richmond Bank of America ATM, and now the attempted theft of this ATM.

Related: Thieves Swipe ATM From Clooney’s Pub, Then Crash Into SFPD Car [SFist]

Image: EvilWeasel47 via Reddit