Published: September 05, 2008 11:23 pm         

Warrant secured in ATM theft

Suspect already in prison facing separate charges.

Police recently secured an arrest warrant for the second of two men believed to have stolen an ATM from the Logansport Mall last year.

Detective Rob Smith of the Logansport Police Department said that through an ongoing investigation he had linked Jason W. Ash of Peru to the crime.

“He is believed to be a co-conspirator,” Smith said.

Smith would have served the warrant in person, but Ash is being housed in the Westville Correctional Facility in northern Indiana after being convicted for his role in a token coin scam.

In the early hours of July 8, 2007, police arrived at the mall just minutes after an alarm sounded. Someone had smashed two front door windows and stolen an ATM machine that contained about $5,000. Officers searched the area but found no one.

During the investigation, police collected blood from broken glass and sent it off for analysis. The DNA reportedly matched to Randall S. Adams of Galveston, the other suspect in the crime. Adams' case is pending in Cass County.

As for Ash, Smith presented the recently gathered evidence in Cass Circuit Court, and Judge Leo Burns issued the warrant for a class C felony charge of burglary and a class D felony charge of theft.

Adams and Ash are also charged in a string of scams involving pizza parlor game tokens wrapped to look like rolls of quarters. The scam began shortly after a burglary at Pizza Quick on U.S. 31 in Peru. It was perpetrated by two culprits in multiple towns in and around Cass County.

From surveillance footage, a Miami County detective identified Ash through tattoos photographed during a previous arrest.

In August 2007, police charged Adams and Ash with multiple counts of theft. According to Smith, both admitted they committed the scams that targeted 11 businesses in Cass, Howard, Grant and Tipton counties.

During an interrogation, Ash and Adams denied involvement in the mall burglary, but police found the stolen ATM machine and a token machine together in Pipe Creek in Miami County. Money from the theft was not recovered.

Adams is out on bond. According to the DOC Web site, Ash’s earliest possible release date is Nov. 1. The pending charges in Cass County carry a sentencing range of two to eight years and six months to three years.

Ash is also wanted in Tipton County on a theft charge.

Kevin Lilly can be reached at (574) 732-5117, or via e-mail at kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com