ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Two Illinois men faces charges in connection to a series of ATM thefts in St. Louis County in 2023 that led to over $90,000 being stolen.
Ronald Blake, 53, and Aveon Jones, 34, were both issued summonses by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Thursday. Both were charged with two counts of Stealing from an ATM and two counts of first degree property damage. All charges are Class-C Felonies.
According to a probable cause statement, two ATMs, located near each other in a parking lot on Bellefontaine Road, were forcibly broken into two weeks apart and cash stolen from inside. In total, $90,360 was stolen from both ATMs. Various tools were used to break open the back of both machine.
A suspect vehicle was identified from both thefts. The same vehicle was also involved in similar ATM thefts during the same time period in north St. Louis County and in Illinois.
Both Jones and Blake were identified from surveillance video of the various thefts.
While executing a search warrant at Jones's home, Blake arrived at the home and would later confirm to police officers he was one of the people seen in the security video and was taken into custody.
Police would later located Jones, who denied knowing Blake and made no admission to be involved in any of the thefts.
Both Blake and Jones are not in custody, and a judge issued summonses for each man. Blake has been ordered to appear in court on July 10, while Jones was ordered to appear on July 18.