Residents said it sounded like a gunshot, an explosion or a violent accident.

But the early morning crack that shattered through a San Tan Valley neighborhood was a Caterpillar earthmover ramming an ATM.

Police say a crew of thieves used stolen construction equipment to rip the cash machine out of the ground from behind a credit union, load it onto a trailer and tow it to Mesa.

It wasn't the crew's first score. The same men are connected to a spree of ATM and other heists in Mesa, Chandler, Tempe and Scottsdale, according to records filed by Mesa police.

Since 2021, they've hit banks, a hotel and a Mesa marijuana dispensary, where they tore metal security shutters off a window to get at a safe containing about $125,000, Mesa police said in court documents.

But when the same men took the ATM from the Pinal County Federal Credit Union in a neighborhood strip mall just before 2:30 a.m. May 5, officers were watching.

Detectives laid out details of the theft and what led them to suspect the three men in a series of probable cause statements filed with the court.

Surveillance was up continuously for about a week when detectives said the three men left a house on East Javelina Avenue in Mesa and split up into two vehicles, two men riding in a Ford F250 and another in a Chevrolet Impala.

They drove to a church parking lot about a mile from the credit union on Hunt Highway, where they stole a dump trailer. From there, the men drove to a nearby construction site and boosted the Caterpillar earthmover, detectives said.

The stolen Caterpillar, the F250 towing the stolen trailer and the Impala formed a loose convoy on the short drive to the credit union. Once there, detectives said the men used the earthmover to wrest the ATM from the ground and dump it into the trailer.

There was about $58,000 inside the ATM, according to police.

The men ditched the earthmover and drove off with the ATM. Detectives said they headed back to the Javelina house near East Baseline and South Sossaman roads.

The men parked the F250 in the yard for a while before moving the trailer to the backyard of a nearby house on East Juanita Avenue, detectives said.

A few hours later, one of the men left with an unidentified woman in a Dodge Ram pickup and went to Home Depot. Detectives said they bought a Mikita saw and diamond cutting blades and went back to the Juanita house.

It's unclear whether they ever got the ATM open. But even if they did, the trio didn't have much time to savor their loot.

When one of the men left a short time later, police followed and stopped him. Officers said during a search they found fentanyl pills on the man.

Mark Bryant, 57, of Mesa was arrested on suspicion of theft, control of stolen property  and possession of narcotics.

Meanwhile, a Mesa SWAT unit was waiting at the Juanita house and arrested the two other men when they walked outside.

Patrick Intintoli, 42, and Brian Groce, 53, were arrested on suspicion of theft and possession of methamphetamine.

Intintoli was also arrested on suspicion of burglary. Police said he had several outstanding arrest warrants, including two from Maricopa County, one from Pinal County and another from Utah.

He was convicted in 2006 of using a forklift to steal an ATM from a bank, court records show.

Police say it was Intintoli who inadvertently put them on his trail after the dispensary burglary in November.

Video surveillance at the Health for Life dispensary on South 89th Place in Mesa caught images of a single masked figure wearing black and white gloves, according to police.  

"A  broken vehicle taillight, part of the safe and a matching black and white glove were recovered from the scene," police said in court documents. "The glove was recovered in the middle of the street directly behind tracks left by the construction equipment used in this incident."

With gloves come DNA. And police said the DNA profile on file from Intintoli's prior arrest matched. He was also a customer at the dispensary, records showed.

Detectives said they sought a geofence warrant — a warrant that authorizes them to search databases of active cellphones near a location at a particular date and time.

The geofence data put Intintoli's "Google device" (his phone) at the scene of two ATM burglaries and at a place where an ATM was recovered, police said.

Mesa detectives launched surveillance in April, records show.

"The defendant has brazenly committed high-profile thefts with high dollar amounts and has escalated his criminal activity," arresting officer Van Coillie wrote in the probable cause statement. He added that he "believes the defendant has access to large sums of money from previous burglaries/thefts."

Intintoli invoked his right to remain silent when police say they initiated an interview.

But either Bryant or Groce was more talkative. One of them offered police information on the dispensary safe job.

"The co-defendant denied personal involvement but stated that the defendant (Intintoli) was involved and had bragged about committing the dispensary burglary," Coillie wrote.

Bryant denied being involved in the credit union heist and said he wasn't present when the ATM was taken in San Tan Valley.

Groce told police he'd only met Intintoli a month earlier. He admitted to making the Home Depot run for the saw and the blades, saying he'd gotten a call that morning asking him to do the errand, records show.

Groce told police he saw the trailer in the backyard of the house but had no intention of doing any cutting with the saw.

He "did not admit" to participating in the theft of the trailer or the tractor or any of the ATM burglaries.

"The defendant (Groce) was told there was active surveillance and he was witnessed by officers committing ... the crimes," Coillie wrote. "The defendant stated he wanted a lawyer."

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on Twitter @robertanglen.

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