Early yesterday on Detroit’s east side, a pickup truck smashed into the side of a CVS, caving in the storefront and leaving an ATM buried under a pile of broken brick and glass. A store manager said the crash happened around 4 a.m., and that three people in what appeared to be a pickup targeted the ATM before taking off. Police arrived within minutes, and officials said the store will stay closed through Monday while the drive-thru remains open.
According to CBS News Detroit, the manager reported that the group left in the same vehicle and that the ATM ended up buried under debris from the impact. CBS noted that officers reached the store about five minutes after the collision and that it was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured or taken into custody. Store officials told CBS the drive-thru would stay in service while crews handle repairs and a safety assessment.
Not the first time
In January 2025, a similar ram-and-run hit a CVS on Detroit’s north side, when police said a stolen U-Haul was driven straight into the store’s entrance. At the time, officers said the suspects were trying to remove the ATM and that “a group of males in the truck appeared to be trying to steal an ATM,” according to CBS News Detroit. Police then reported the suspects fled in another vehicle, and no immediate arrests were announced.
Smash-and-grab thefts are a national pattern
These smash-and-grab style ATM attacks, where suspects use trucks to ram into storefronts and try to haul the machines out, have popped up across the country and at CVS locations in several metro areas. As FOX 5 Atlanta reported in 2024, surveillance footage in other cases has shown U-Hauls backing into stores and suspects attempting to drag ATMs off the floor. Insurers and security analysts say those attacks increased during the pandemic years, prompting some businesses to add barriers and rethink where they place ATMs, according to Insurance Business.
Why Gratiot matters locally
Gratiot Avenue is one of Detroit’s busiest corridors, and a state planning study has flagged stretches of the route, especially north of Conner, for higher-than-average rates of severe crashes and ongoing speed concerns. The MDOT “Reconnecting Gratiot” planning report maps out crash hot spots and design challenges that can make the fallout worse when high-speed incidents happen near storefronts, according to the MDOT report. That mix of heavy traffic and crash history can make store-front ramming incidents especially disruptive for nearby residents and merchants.
Authorities have not yet released suspect descriptions or an official timeline beyond the manager’s account, and it is still unclear whether anyone was hurt. Updates are expected when police or store officials share more information.
