Police are seeking two men who broke into a Bowmansville convenience store and left 36 seconds later early Tuesday with an automated teller machine that had been bolted to the floor.

Surveillance cameras recorded the smash-and-grab heist in which an undisclosed amount of cash was taken from the V&S Express Sunoco convenience store at 1155 Reading Road (Route 625).

The video shows the thieves moving calmly and quickly in a robbery that took about 90 seconds from the time they pulled in and out of the parking lot in a dark-colored minivan.

State police in Ephrata said both burglars wore white hooded jackets and blue jeans when they smashed through one of the store's front doors at 2:47 a.m. The men cut the ATM from its moorings, dragged it out the door and lifted it into the van, which police believe may have had Maryland license plates.

State police Cpl. Robert Courtright, of the state police criminal division, said the criminals' speed and efficiency suggest the robbery was carefully planned.

"They had the ATM machine out of there in seconds," Courtright said. "This was not random."

Police say the ATM is about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide and similar to others in small convenience stores in the area.

Courtright said because the cameras do not pan outside the front of the store, it is unclear which direction the van went on Route 625. The road leads north to Reading and south to Route 23 in East Earl Township.

Police are enhancing the surveillance tape to get a better view of the license plate, which they say could be stolen or unregistered.

A store employee who watched the surveillance video said two men in different vehicles were spotted on camera in front of the store about 1 a.m. The store closed at 10 p.m. Monday.

Tammy Harris, store manager, said the store attracts business from Route 625 travelers going to Maple Grove Raceway and several campgrounds in the rural area, which is between Lancaster and Reading.

"In my opinion, they have been in the store before," Harris said. "There are a lot of people who come here from outside the area."

It is the third ATM reported stolen from a convenience store within an eight-mile radius — no one has been prosecuted for the thefts, police said.

In March 2004, thieves broke into a Sunoco service station on Route 322 in Salisbury Township and stole a bank ATM, according to Ephrata state police at the time.

In summer 2003, criminals targeted the convenience store on Main Street in Terre Hill, smashed the glass door and grabbed the ATM inside.

Courtright said state police had worked on both the ATM thefts.

"We never had enough to arrest anyone on those," he said. "But these crimes are very similar."

Jeff Shabbir, the owner of the Terre Hill convenience store, took over the business about a month after thieves stole the ATM.

"The first thing I did was move the ATM away from the door. You must walk across the store to get to it," Shabbir said.

Theft and vandalism in the rural areas around Brecknock, East Earl, Salisbury townships and Terre Hill and New Holland boroughs have some residents worried.

On Tuesday, a New Holland man who left his home about noon for an hour returned to find his home ransacked, with furniture turned over and drawers searched, but police found nothing missing.

A week ago, vandals broke into a Brecknock Township home and caused thousands of dollars in damage by spray-painting it throughout. Trails of spray paint were on walls, doors, appliances, furniture and even family photos.

Robert Gehman, who has lived in the same the Brecknock Township home since he was born in 1933, stopped at the Sunoco in Bowmansville Tuesday for his daily cup of coffee. He said he's surprised by recent criminal activity in the area.

"It's always been pretty calm around here," Gehman said. "I've never been afraid to be anywhere around here, but it's changing."

Shabbir said the news that thieves stole the ATM from the Sunoco in Bowmansville only about four miles away from his Terre Hill store is "scary."

"I've made three bars to fit against the doors," Shabbir said. "Maybe I'll put them up today."

E-mail: pburns@lnpnews.com