MITCHELL BANK WEST LOCATIONS HIT BY “JACKPOTTING THEFT”

An incident at two BankWest locations in Mitchell resulted in approximately $80,000 cash taken between the two locations.  The theft from the two locations involved “jackpotting” which according to google is a sophisticated organization cyber physical crime in where criminals breach the Atm security and install malware or malicious hardware and force the machine to dispense all of its cash.  The method directly targets the bank’s cash reserves.  The theft from two BankWest Atm’s occurded late Friday night February 13th into the morning of Saturday the 14th.  According to Sgt McGlaughlin with the Mitchell Police department the suspect used “jackpotting” to gain access to the atm’s.  While the total amount of money is not known yet roughly $80,000 was taken.  The suspect appears to approach the atm’s on foot wearing a mask and body covering no vehicle details are known as investigators continue to look into additional security footage.  BankWest is based in Pierre with 25 branch location in South Dakota.  Reports of suspicious activity can be directed to the Mitchell Police Department.