Missouri – A Texas man is headed to federal prison after admitting his role in a series of violent ATM thefts that stretched across several states, including Missouri. Earlier this week, 28-year-old Nigel Dwayne Luchin was sentenced to four years behind bars without the possibility of parole. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool in connection with charges of bank burglary and bank theft conspiracies.
Luchin’s crimes centered around brazen attacks on ATMs in Missouri, Massachusetts, and Maryland during late 2023, the Department of Justice said in a release. Prosecutors revealed that in the early morning hours of October 30, 2023, Luchin and accomplices stole a white Ford F-250 pickup truck and used it to rip open an ATM in Ozark, Missouri.
Armed with a tow chain and heavy hooks, the group destroyed the ATM’s door and made off with more than $30,000 in cash before ditching the stolen truck nearby.
Detectives investigating the scene quickly uncovered critical evidence: inside the abandoned Ford truck, officers found Luchin’s Texas identification card sitting right on the driver’s seat. That discovery, combined with extensive video footage from local businesses, helped authorities retrace the conspirators’ steps.
Surveillance showed them arriving in two rental vehicles — a Chrysler Voyager and a Toyota Highlander — and leaving with the stolen truck. Investigators traced these rentals back to agencies in Houston, linking Luchin and his partners to the crime.
Further analysis of Luchin’s cell phone data by the FBI placed him at the Ozark ATM burglary and at the truck theft location. The same phone records connected him to two other crimes just days earlier: an ATM burglary in Seekonk, Massachusetts, on October 28, 2023, and an attempted ATM theft in LaVale, Maryland, on October 29.
Luchin formally pleaded guilty on November 7, 2024, to four felony counts: conspiracy to commit bank burglary, bank burglary, conspiracy to commit bank theft, and bank theft. As part of his sentence, he must pay $175,700 in restitution to the affected banks in Ozark, Seekonk, and LaVale.
Luchin’s sentencing marks the first in the case involving multiple defendants. His co-conspirator, Christopher Merchant, has also admitted guilt and is awaiting sentencing after his March 11, 2025, plea.
The case was built through a coordinated investigation by the FBI, along with the police departments in Ozark and Springfield, Missouri, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie L. Wan.
With one defendant sentenced and another still awaiting judgment, authorities say their work highlights the importance of interstate collaboration in stopping organized ATM theft rings that damage businesses and threaten communities across the country.
