Thieves targeted automatic teller machines in two nearby towns over the weekend.

The FBI is investigating the break-ins to ATMs outside a bank in Tonganoxie and inside a convenience store in Princeton.

“These were very professional jobs,” FBI agent Jeff Lanza said.

On Monday morning, employees at Community National Bank, 231 N. Main St., Tonganoxie, discovered its drive-up ATM had been vandalized and money had been taken, Tonganoxie Police said.

On Sunday morning, a burglary at Quick Shop, 1445 U.S. 59 Highway, Princeton, was discovered by a store employee, Franklin County Sheriff’s spokesman said.

An ATM machine and a safe inside the store were forced open and an undetermined amount of money was taken, a sheriff’s report said.

Someone gained entry to the store by forcing open a rear door. The burglary occurred sometime between 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday, the report said.

In both cases, thieves cut phone lines to the ATMs, disconnecting them from alarm systems. ATMs are difficult to break into, Lanza said.

“They used an unidentified tool to break into them,” he said.

Investigators do not know if the thefts and burglaries were done by the same thieves, Lanza said. No other such cases have been reported recently in the Kansas City or northeast Kansas area.