Chad Engel and Scott Petri each pleaded guilty to bank burglary and conspiracy to commit bank burglary. Engel was sentenced Friday to 11.5 years in prison.
A judge on Friday sentenced a Chula Vista man to more than 11 years in federal prison for the bombing of two ATMs in 2017 that netted him and an accomplice just $3,420.
Engel and Petri admitted that early in the morning on July 4, 2017, they used a pipe bomb to try to blow up an ATM outside the California Coast Credit Union on Ruffin Road south of Balboa Avenue, near the headquarters of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. The blast damaged the machine, but not enough for the duo to access any money.
About a month later, Engel allegedly beat up his girlfriend, breaking her jaw and causing other significant injuries that required surgeries, prosecutors detailed in a document filed shortly before an aborted trial. When National City police officers made contact with her as part of that incident, she told them she had overheard Engel and Petri discussing “plans and outcomes” of ATM bombings, and said she heard them divvying up money after the second burglary.
While in jail, Engel introduced himself to several people as “the ATM bomber” and allegedly tried to convince another inmate who was on the verge of release to commit a similar bombing to confuse investigators, according to prosecutors. Petri also allegedly discussed extensive details about the bombings with a cellmate, telling the other man that he was the real ATM bomber because Engel didn’t have the technical skills to act on his own.
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