SEATTLE – A longtime employee of Loomis Armored US Inc. was charged this week with siphoning about $200,000 from credit union and bank ATMs throughout Seattle he was charged with replenishing with cash.
The employee, Kenneth Bolliger, was a custodian in a three-man Loomis crew—including a driver and armed guard--that resupplied ATMs with cash and removed the leftover “residual” cash for return to the Loomis vaults, according to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed this week. The crews have several layers of oversight --each "custodian" must use a traceable key to unlock the machines, the money is tallied against printed receipts by a third party.
Authorities believe Bolliger, who worked for Loomis for 13 years, stole portions of the residual cash that came from ATMs at BECU, Watermark CU, Washington State Employees CU and Salal CU, as well as U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
After an audit uncovered the alleged scheme, Bolliger told authorities he had lost $20,000 during one of his routes when he accidentally forgot two bags of cash on the rear bumper of the truck that fell off and he was trying to cover for the lost funds, according to the indictment. But authorities don’t believe him. Among other things, they discovered Bolliger had been routinely late on his car payments then began making timely payments after the cash began to go missing from the ATMs
The audit found that Bolliger regularly put less money into his ATMs than ordered, then pocketed the difference.
