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Thieves and bank robbers have come across a much simpler way to steal money. Around the U.S., ATM machines are being stolen with the help of forklifts hot-wired from construction sites.

While ATM makers and banks have been taking measures to stop the theft, it hasn’t discouraged the heists this summer in states like California, Arizona, and Georgia.

In the Phoenix area alone, thefts or attempted thefts have taken place a minimum of 21 times.

“It’s called the smash-and-dash,” said Rob Evans, the director of the world’s largest manufacturer of automated teller machines, NCR Corp., and expert on ATM thefts.

The payoff for thieves that actually succeed in breaking into ATMs once they’ve stolen them is anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars depending on where the machines were taken from.

However, Evans said that “the vast majority of those attacks are unsuccessful. A lot of times you just get a lot of damage.”

In many cases, an ATM thief is spotted by surveillance cameras or security guards minutes after they come stomping through with a forklift. Other thieves can’t break the machines loose, and the ones who do get away, often find it too difficult to break the concrete-and-steel vault.

Furthermore, in an effort to protect their money, a lot of banks equip ATMs with global-positioning technology that can trace where the thieves have taken the machines. Some even have alarms that are set off if someone attempts to tamper with them. Even if the machines are taken, the safes are extremely tough to open.

So maybe the ATM theft business is not as easy as it sounds.

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