OKLAHOMA CITY – An Edmond resident named in nine felony charges filed in Oklahoma County District Court is accused of committing a crime spree in January, including the theft of an ATM.
Aaron Zachery Peterson, 52, is charged with malicious injury to property, grand larceny, and concealing stolen property. Those charges arose from the Jan. 16 destruction and theft of the ATM at Tinker Federal Credit Union’s location in south OKC.
Video from a security camera showed that a forklift rammed the ATM and knocked it off its concrete base, rammed its arms through the side of the machine, then hoisted the damaged device into a pickup that drove off; the operator of the forklift abandoned the vehicle.
One count of unauthorized use of a vehicle accuses Peterson of stealing a 2002 Toyota on Jan. 11.
He was charged with grand larceny in the theft of a dirt bike, and with unauthorized use of a vehicle in the theft of a vehicle owned by Centennial Landscaping; both of those incidents occurred on Jan. 30.
Peterson also is accused of malicious injury to property and engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses when he allegedly cut into an ATM at 10731 S. Western owned by First United Bank and Trust Co. of Norman. The date of the incident is unclear from the district attorney’s paperwork.
And on Feb. 16 a separate charge of possession of a stolen vehicle was filed against Peterson in Oklahoma County District Court.
He was arrested Feb. 15 by Oklahoma City and Edmond police and remained in the Oklahoma County Jail on Feb. 23 in lieu of $1 million bond, court records reflect.
Peterson’s criminal record extends back nearly three decades.
In 2016 he admitted being a one-man crime wave, Oklahoma State Courts Network records reflect. That year he was named in, and pleaded guilty to, 15 felony charges filed in Oklahoma County.
Those included attempted larceny of an automobile, grand larceny, possession of a controlled dangerous substance (three counts), possession of drug paraphernalia (two counts), second- degree burglary (four counts), possession of stolen property (three counts), and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was given a 10-year prison sentence, with all 15 counts to be served concurrently.
In addition, Peterson pleaded guilty in Okfuskee County in 1995 to a felony charge of escape from a penal institution.