4 arrested in $1.1 million ATM thefts

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TORONTO, March 8 (UPI) -- Four suspects have been arrested in the theft of $1.1 million from more than 130 automated teller machines in Canada, police said Friday.

Halton Regional Police said the four men taken into custody Thursday and Friday used pry bars, drills and blowtorches to get into ATMs across Ontario and Quebec in a spree that began in late October 2010, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Police said a video they posted on YouTube last October that showed people using a blowtorch to open an ATM was instrumental in breaking the case. The video was viewed more than 100,000 times.

William Nolin, 43, of Niagara, Regean Lavigne, 48, and Lavigne's son Maxime Lavigne, 24, of Laval were arrested Thursday in Niagara and Toronto. Pierre Poirier, 51, of Quebec was arrested Friday in Laval on unrelated warrants.

The four men face dozens of counts of breaking-and-entering and possessions of tools used to break-and-enter.

Halton Regional Police Detective Sgt. Anthony Odoardi told the CBC investigators had recovered only $10,000 to $15,000 of the total stolen.