MODESTO, Calif. — With years of experience grooming man's best friend, the owner of Modesto's Diamond in the Ruff Pet Spa, Christin Boyster knows to listen to her four-legged customers.
"When they start to feel off or when they're in a bad mood, something happened or something is about to happen," said Boyster.
On Sept. 18, Boyster said things felt off when a man and woman walked into her business.
"They were just asking about an appointment," Boyster said. "They wanted to see how much I would charge for their dog."
Law enforcement now says that conversation was just a distraction, as two of their accomplices damaged security cameras, tested how the wall between the business and neighboring ATMs was constructed and scoped out the area.
By the time Boyster opened the next morning, the damage was done.
“We could see a couple of holes in the wall," Boyster said. "We kind of knew that we got broken into because of the ATM."
When FBI agents showed up at her business, Boyster realized she wasn't alone. In a 78-page affidavit filed earlier in October, federal prosecutors say the same group got away with more than $2.5 million in similar ATM heists from Southern California to Seattle.
It started in January when FBI agents say the group of ten, mostly Chilean nationals, used the darkness of night, black spray paint on security cameras, cell phone jammers and blow torches to break into an ATM vault at a Houston bank.
Between June and September, they allegedly went on a crime tour of California, renting Airbnbs across the state while scouting out and eventually breaking into the vaults at nearly a dozen ATMs, including ones in Roseville, Yuba City, Rocklin and Elk Grove.
It was after a June attempted ATM robbery in Merced that the FBI started tracking the crew, who FBI agents call a "South American theft group." FBI agents caught up to the ten and arrested them days ago as they were leaving another Airbnb in Seattle.
In court documents, the FBI said this is still an active case and that some targets connected to the thefts have not yet been arrested.
While Boyster said it was customers, friends and the community that got her one-year-old business through the expensive aftermath of the break-in, she will follow the case and hopes for justice.
"For them to take advantage of that was really frustrating," Boyster said. "I just hope they get what they deserve. I hope they charge them to the full extent of the law."
A court date has been set for Nov. 6 in Fresno. If convicted, the defendants could face up to 25 years in prison.
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