Person Of Interest In String Of ATM Thefts Apprehended

A man considered to be a person of interest in ATM machine thefts in Selma, Princeton, Raleigh, Fuquay-Varina, Clayton, and Garner in the past several weeks has been arrested. Robert Blake Strother was taken into custody by Clayton and Wilson ’s Mills Police on Monday at a location on Fire Department Road . Strother has been formally charged with stealing an entire ATM machine from Bojangles on South Wilmington Street in Raleigh last Wednesday. Strother allegedly backed a Dodge pickup truck up to the window, broke out the glass, and then wrapped a chain around the ATM, which he drug outside with the truck. News coverage of the surveillance photos from the crime scene led to the suspect’s identification, according to Raleigh Police. Clayton Police Chief Glen Allen said Strother was a suspect in the theft of an ATM machine on April 26 at 2:45am Howard’s Mini Mart. The 20-year-old man is also a person of interest in similar ATM thefts in several other cities across Johnston and Wake counties . Additional charges and arrests are anticipated, according to Chief Allen. This is not Strother’s first brush with the law. In January, he was charged by Wilson ’s Mills Police with using his older brother’s identity during a traffic stop. His brother has been in the military for the past four years, and at the time of his younger brothers arrest, hadn’t been in North Carolina in two years, police said at the time.