An automated teller machine was dragged out of a Somerset County convenience store this morning, marking the fifth such theft in the past two months.

According to state police, someone broke the glass of the front doors at the South Side Express Convenience Store in Summit at about 2 a.m. and used a cable or chain to pull both the ATM and a phone card machine out of the store with a truck. The suspect or suspects then put the machines in the back of the truck and fled south on Route 219.

Similar crimes have also occurred in Washington and Westmoreland counties since April.

On April 7, someone dragged a money machine out of a BP station just off Interstate 70 in Buffalo Township, Washington County. Minutes earlier, there was a failed attempt to steal an ATM from an Exxon station in Donegal Township.

On April 25, police said two burglars broke into a Kwik Fill store in Washington, wrapped a chain around the ATM and drove off.

On Thursday, an ATM was stolen from the Lone Pine One Stop, just off Interstate 79 in Amwell, Washington County, and on Friday, a machine was yanked out of the Exxon Buy N Fly market in Herminie, Westmoreland County.

State police have not yet determined if the crimes are related.