Claymont man sentenced for robbing ATMs in 2020

Judge gives 23-year old 6 1⁄2 years for the thefts

A 23-year-old man from Claymont has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for setting off explosives in a string of robberies in Philadelphia in 2020, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said Friday.

The Claymont man was indicted with two men from Pennsylvania in 2021 for using explosive devices to rob ATMs in a Target and a Wawa and attempting to rob the ATMs at two other Wawa stores, one of them in Claymont, in the fall of 2020, the Department of Justice said. The man was also charged with setting off an explosive device at a Wells Fargo in Philadelphia later that year.

The Department of Justice said the men stole about $417,000 in total.

The court said that the robberies and attempted robberies of ATMs in

Philadelphia and Delaware coincided with “widespread incidents of looting and violence” following a fatal officerinvolved shooting in Philadelphia on Oct. 26, 2020.

“Violence and destruction of property like this clearly jeopardize the rights and safety of all citizens,” said U.S. attorney Jacqueline C. Romero. “If you seek to use peaceful protests as cover to pursue your own violent criminal agenda, my office and our law enforcement partners will bring you to justice.”

The 23-year-old Claymont man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to maliciously damage property used in interstate commerce by means of an explosive, aiding and abetting, and four separate counts alleging maliciously damaging property used in interstate commerce by means of an explosive, the Department of Justice said.

He will spend three years on supervised release following his six-and-ahalf-year prison sentence.