Transit police look for suspects in ticket vending machine break-ins

WATCH: Surveillance video shows the suspects break into a number of Skytrain ticket vending machines. In one of the incidents, a suspect gets his leg caught on a broken gate and escapes without his pants. 

Transit police are looking for suspects in a string of ticket vending machine break-ins on the Skytrain system.

Anne Drennan with Transit Police says they had five break-ins at various Skytrain stations in August alone: two at the Metrotown station and one each at the Lake City Way, Patterson and 29th Avenue stations.

“In these incidents, either two or three men at a time would use a crowbar and a screwdriver to pry open the vending machines, pry out the cash boxes and steal the cash,” says Drennan.

A total of approximately $2,000 in cash was stolen, but there was more than $7,000 worth of damage done to the vending machines.

In one case, a stolen white Jeep Cherokee was used, which police later found parked several blocks away.

“It is very difficult to give a suspect description because they wear a bandanna or a scarf around their face, and tend to wear a hat or a hoodie. They are all dressed in black,” says Drennan.

She says the suspects appear to be relatively young because they are fairly agile and appear to be strong.

In the last incident on August 27, an alarm went off and the suspects got spooked.

One of them caught his leg on a broken part of the gate while escaping, pulling his pants completely off.

“We have his pants and we are doing a DNA analysis on them,” says Drennan.

Transit police are hoping the bizarre nature of the incidents will lead to any information about the suspects.

Drennan says they believe all incidents are connected and the same individuals are involved.