Houston man gets 10 years for multistate ATM robbery ring targeting technicians

A 24-year-old Houston man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Tuesday for a violent string of bank robberies targeting ATM repair technicians across multiple states, prosecutors announced.

Seth Coles-Body pleaded guilty in February 2026 to four counts of bank robbery and two counts of attempted bank robbery for his role in a scheme that spanned Washington, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, Maine and Mississippi, prosecutors said. U.S. District Judge James L. Robart handed down the sentence in Seattle federal court.

Coles-Body and co-defendant Ahmon Hogg, 23, of Humble, Texas, operated a robbery ring in which they would disable ATM machines and then ambush technicians dispatched to fix them, threatening or assaulting them to steal cash cassettes from the open machines, according to court documents. The pair stole hundreds of thousands of dollars and agreed to pay restitution currently determined to be $768,900 to victims.

The scheme began in December 2024, when the men disabled Bank of America ATMs in Renton and Vancouver, Washington, timed to the Christmas holiday when machines would be fully loaded with cash. In the Renton incident, the technician escaped after a scuffle. The following day in Vancouver, the men grabbed five cash cassettes from an open machine and fled. The pair also admitted to disabling another ATM in Battle Ground, Washington, that same day.

Law enforcement later identified the pair in January 2025 in the Phoenix area, where ATMs at Bank of America and Wells Fargo had been tampered with. They were stopped while attempting to rob one of the disabled machines.

In March 2025, they carried out another robbery in Redmond, Washington, stealing cash canisters from a Bank of America machine. Some of the canisters were later recovered. Days later, Coles-Body was stopped by U.S. Border Patrol carrying approximately $209,000 in cash, which was seized before he was released.

The robberies continued into the spring and summer of 2025. In May, the men robbed a Wells Fargo in Houston, with Coles-Body rushing and injuring a technician and stealing about $117,000. In June, they robbed an ATM customer in Oregon after disabling machines in the area, then drove cross-country to South Portland, Maine, where they beat a Bank of America technician and stole $47,000. The men were ultimately arrested during a traffic stop in Jackson, Mississippi, where authorities found stolen firearms and large amounts of cash in the vehicle.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said Coles-Body “targeted ordinary, hardworking citizens who were simply doing their job” and used increasing violence over time. Judge Robart said Coles-Body “was enjoying a criminal life” driven by “greed and an appetite for money.”