A charge of malicious injury to property was filed against a Stroud man on July 30, over an incident involving anATMonJuly25.
MichaelVincentThomas was charged with one felony count of malicious injury to property - over $1,000. District Attorney Adam Panter filed supplemental information showing that Thomas was previously convicted of four counts of manslaughter in the first degree in Noble County in 2008, according to court documents.
On July 25, Ofc. Tammi Batman of the Stroud Police Department responded to a disturbance at the On-Cue store on Main Street at around 7 p.m., according to the probable cause affidavit. The reporting party said that a man came in to use theATM,andwhenitdidn’t produce any money, the man destroyed the screen and refused to leave until he received his money.
Batman wrote in the report that when she arrived at the store, she spoke with Thomas, whom she knew through previous law enforcement encounters. He told her that he hadn’t meant to break the machine and had attempted to withdraw $500. The machine sounded as though it was going to dispense the cash, but did not. He reported that he then kicked the machine and that a store employee told him to kick it. It was then that he kicked again and the screen shattered.
The officer spoke with the employees at the store and left statement forms for them to fill out. According to the affidavit, the employees stated that they did not tell Thomas to kick the machine.
The report stated that the ATM has an estimated value of between $2,000 and $8,000 and that the store rents it from Trans Fund Bank. It is no longer operational.
Thomas was taken into custody at the scene without incident and transported to Stroud Hospital for medical clearance and then transported to the Lincoln County Jail, according to the affidavit.