A stolen ATM is seen chucked in the water from the Bartlett Carry Bridge on Aug. 20. A Vermont man has been charged with allegedly stealing the machine from a Main Street Lake Placid business. (Provided photo — Philip Kokotailo)

WAWBEEK — On Aug. 20, Philip Kokotailo and his friend were looking for a padlock they thought may have fallen off a truck on the bridge on Bartlett Carry Road when they found something else lost in the water — a stolen ATM.

The ATM had been stolen from a business on Main Street in Lake Placid earlier in the day, according to police.

The bridge is around half a mile up the road from state Route 3 and goes over a channel between Upper and Middle Saranac lakes. Kokotailo said they saw an “unusual object.” At first, they thought it was an arcade video game cabinet. But when they looked closer, they realized it was an ATM. They reported it to the police.

Through “good police work,” Lake Placid Police Chief Chuck Dobson said they were able to trace the alleged theft to James P. Welles, 56, of Middlebury, Vermont.

He was arrested on Aug. 21 at 4:26 p.m. and charged with third-degree grand larceny and second-degree criminal mischief, both felonies. Dobson said he may face an additional burglary charge.

“It was a combination of reviewing camera footage, interviewing people in the area and extensive investigation by our officers,” Dobson said. “We do not have any evidence to say that he didn’t act alone.”

Dobson said the suspect was not able to get into the money compartment of the ATM, but that the machine was “substantially damaged.”

Dobson said Welles allegedly used a dolly to wheel the heavy machine out of the business while it was open.

Greg Dickson had been driving on the road a few hours before Kokotailo found the ATM when he and his wife came across a Subaru hatchback with Vermont plates parked sideways, blocking the bridge. In the back, was a “big, square, dark object” that was halfway out of the back of the car. Dickson said the man pushed the object back in the hatchback with some difficulty, told them he had gotten turned around and moved his car so they could pass. Dickson heard from neighbors that the car was left in the woods nearby overnight.

The next day, when they learned an ATM had been dumped off the bridge, they gave a statement to State Police describing their encounter and were able to identify Welles from a Facebook profile picture the trooper showed him.

The New York State Police, Middlebury Vermont Police Department, Saranac Lake Police Department and Essex County Sheriff’s Office assisted in his arrest.

Police discovered Welles had a bench warrant in New Jersey and was charged with being a fugitive from justice, a felony. Dobson said the New Jersey charge was for engaging in sexual conduct which would impair or debauch the morals of a child.

Welles was arraigned in Lake Placid Town Court and Brighton Town Court, and remanded to Essex County Jail without bail, to be extradited to New Jersey.

Police in Brandon, Vermont, which is near Middlebury, said they are looking into whether this theft is connected with an ATM theft at a convenience store there on Aug. 13. Surveillance video from that store shows two people smashing a plate glass window, tying a chain around the ATM and yanking it through the glass with a white Ford F-150.