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Man Buys Car With $150K Left Behind By ATM Workers

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 08:14 PST, Jul 31, 2015

A man bought a car with $150K that he found left behind by the ATM workers.

According to a report by Sport Act Breaking News, Alton Harvey, 42, of Hillside, was arrested and charged with theft of mislaid property after he used the money he found to purchase a Chevy Tahoe SUV several hours later.

The theft took place outside of a building at 31 Industrial Drive in Mahwah, located in northern New Jersey. The entire incident was caught on surveillance video, which showed an employee for the company ATMForUs.com leaving the bag of money near the curb where they had parked their ATM service vehicle, a black Toyota Prius. Not long after, a white GMC Savana van pulls up with two male passengers inside. One of the men got out of the van, examined the bag, and then loaded it into the vehicle before pulling off.

While it was originally questioned as being an inside job between the ATM mechanics, the police later confirmed that they were not involved.

“Inadvertently, I know that sounds odd,” Mahwah police chief James Batelli said, according to Pix11. “he put a satchel of $150,000 on the curb.”

“A lot of people have asked, ‘How can an employee leave $150,000 on the curb and simply forget it?'” said Chief Batelli. “To us, that’s a lot of money,” he said, “but for them, delivering ATM machines all day, money in and out, it’s not a large amount of money.”

The Mahwah detectives searched a license plate database and located the white GMC Savana van in Irvington. The Chevy Tahoe with temporary license plates, purchased later that day by Harvey for $46,000, was also seen in Irvington.

After following the vehicle, they arrested Harvey and booked him at the Bergen County Jail on a $125,000 bond,with no 10 percent option. He is being charged with theft of mislaid property, a second-degree crime. Harvey already has 10 felony convictions on his record which include arrests for weapons and narcotics, escape, and resisting arrest.

Jamar Bludson, 35, of Newark, has been identified as the second male in the vehicle. Bludson is already wanted for a probation violation, but now the police have issued another warrant for his arrest in regards to the ATM theft.

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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