CHICAGO – A South Side man has been given a two-year prison sentence for his failed attempt to break into an ATM with at least $100,000 in cash.
Rodney Westerfield, 32, pleaded guilty to criminal damage to property and received the sentence from Judge Natasha Toller. Prosecutors dropped the most serious charge he faced, attempted theft of $100,000 to $500,000.
During the overnight hours of August 23, 2023, Chicago Police responded to a call about two men cutting an ATM at Bank of America, 250 West 83rd Street. When they arrived, they saw Westerfield running from the scene.
Police chased him and watched him throw three large objects into the grass just before they caught him, the report said. Those items included a grinder, two crowbars and a black and white balaclava.
The police report stated that Westerfield was wearing white latex gloves when police arrested him.
Back at the bank, police found the security door of an ATM pried open, showing “severe damage,” the report continued.
An officer wrote that they “determined there was more than $100,000 [United States currency] inside of the ATM.”
Westerfield was under electronic monitoring from August 25 until he pleaded guilty on August 9. By law, every day he spent on an ankle monitor counted toward his prison sentence. As a result, he spent only three nights at the Stateville Correctional Center before being released.
He has two prior felony convictions that resulted in prison time, both gun cases from 2020, according to state records.
