They're bold, reckless and sometimes can extract an ATM faster than it takes to make a legal transaction on one.

	Graphic: Recent ATM thefts

These masked, apparently unarmed ATM rustlers have lassoed a half dozen cash-laden automatic teller machines from rural convenience stores in Southwestern Pennsylvania over the past two months, getting away with tens of thousands of dollars.

Similar thefts have occurred in West Virginia and the Maryland panhandle as well.

"I'm awestruck over the fact that it happened. I've never had an experience like this before," said Sheena Weimer, 21, a day after the bandits stole a portable ATM from the South Side Express in Somerset County, where she works.

"The last time we had any big crime around here, I think I was a senior in high school, when those boys stole all those explosives," she added.

Driving stolen vehicles, the thieves smash the glass double doors, enter and wrap a chain or steel cable around the machine. The chain is hooked to the vehicle, which is used to snatch the unit from its mooring and through the broken doors. They heave their prize into the truck and drive away.

"We've got them on video at some of these things," said one ATM distributor, who asked not to be identified in fear of being targeted.

"It was just like a SWAT team operation. They were in, lassoed that thing, and they were out of there in 30 seconds on the tape."

South Side Express is a family-owned convenience store and Citgo gas station in Garrett, a tiny community in Summit, Somerset County.

Like the other businesses that have been hit since April 7, the South Side Express is on a sparsely populated, isolated rural route.

The region has a part-time police force which goes off duty late at night. In recent ATM thefts, the burglars strike minutes after the stores close, around 1 or 2 a.m., and just after police call it a night.

ATMs are all that have been reported stolen, except in the South Side Express theft, in which a machine containing about 400 prepaid phone cards also was taken.

"That's what they came for. That's all they took," said Greg Tunstall, Ms. Weimer's stepfather and owner of the store with her mother, Sherry Tunstall.

Both machines were owned by Conrad Sersland, founder of Conserve in Oakland, Md.

Mr. Sersland leases space for the machines at South Side Express and 15 other outlets in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia. Over the past 11 months, he said, four of his machines have been stolen.

"The other ones are more off the beaten path than South Side Express," he said.

One that was taken this year from a store in Grantsville, Md., was found in March by park rangers in Forbes State Forest in Somerset County, state police said.

A torch had been used to burn through the triple vault system to get to the cash.

Ms. Weimer said the South Side Express cash machine had been replenished Tuesday. About 12 hours later, it was stolen, just after 2 a.m. Wednesday.

The rash of thefts of automatic teller machines is seen as one of the growing pains of a relatively new and healthy business, said Thomas Ranallo, vice president and general manager of ATM Cash World in Robinson.

His is one of the major ATM distribution businesses in the region. ATM Cash World owns about 50 of the army of ATMs providing fast cash for fast times in businesses on Carson Street on the South Side.

Mr. Ranallo said he had lost at least a dozen machines over the past two years to smash-and-grab thieves.

"It's all over the country. It's happening everywhere," he said.

As the store alarms begin to scream, the burglars already are driving away, long before any law enforcement or store owners can arrive.

Nearly all of Mr. Ranallo's stolen machines have been from isolated shops on or near Interstate 70. These include the May 26 theft at the Exxon Fly-N-Buy in Amwell, and the May 25 burglary at the Lone Pine 1-Stop in Herminie.

On April 7, robbers took a machine from the BP station off Interstate 70 in Buffalo just minutes after they failed to rip one out five miles away at Krishnayana's Exxon on the same highway in Donegal.

Because the machines are not banks, the money inside is not insured. Mr. Sersland, of Conserve, said that, while the business has been profitable, he barely broke even last year because of the thefts.

The ATM capacity is more than $20,000, Mr. Ranallo said, but most machines contain far less, not more than $5,000.

"We don't put anywhere near what would make it worth what these guys are doing," Mr. Ranallo said.

The break-in at Krishnayana's Exxon last month was the third time in nine months that the burglars broke down the door, the store owner, Usha Krishnayana said. Each time, the thieves could not yank the machine from its mooring or it got stuck in the rubble at the door.

"But," Mrs. Krishnayana said, "they keep coming back. Maybe they think this is an easy area for them because nobody is taking any action."

The Exxon station now is open 24 hours a day, an attempt to discourage more break-ins there.

"Every night when I go home, I'm worried about my night person," she said.

But, like her ATM, she said, she will not be moved to close the business.

"This is my job. Those people, they're just like some robber. They don't care. They just want to rob money."

In addition to the video surveillance, a few witnesses have reported having seen the tail end of the robberies.

State police said it was likely that the same crew is responsible for most, if not all, of the thefts.

In at least one instance, they entered stores that still were open and held guns on the occupants while doing their lasso routine.

The videotapes show what appear to be two sturdily built men, strong enough to lift the 200- to 300-pound machines. Their faces and hands are covered.

Two of the getaway vehicles have been found abandoned, one in New Centerville, Somerset County, and one in Preston County, W.Va.

Based on the condition of the discarded ATM found in Somerset County, police believe the thieves have access to expert welding equipment and the skills to use it.

"They're not doing this in their garage," said state police Cpl. Robert Clark, the crime unit supervisor at the Somerset station.

In Pennsylvania, a task force of state, local and federal agents is investigating the crimes.

The Garrett, Md., Bureau of Investigation uses a similar composition of agents for various major crimes in the Tri-State area around the Maryland panhandle region. The unit also is looking into the ATM thefts, Cpl. Clark said.

Preston County has had six thefts and five related recoveries of vehicles or ATMs and safes.

Investigators urge the public to report any sightings of ATMs or safes in vehicles and are telling business owners to make the machines as hard to remove as possible and to install more lighting and surveillance cameras if possible.

Until the bandits are caught -- police said their capture was inevitable -- officials and the ATM owners advise store operators to move the machines away from the door, remove all cash after the store closes, and leave the ATM open to show it is empty.