Thieves using a stolen digger ripped a cash machine from a bank's wall early this morning in Co Carlow.
However, the gang left empty-handed when the machine fell off the back of a trailer a short distance away.
The machine was found on a back road near the town of Borris, while the JCB was found close to the scene on the town's Main Street. Gardaí said the JCB was taken from a building site shortly before the incident which happened at 3 a.m.
The ATM will be technically examined and the scene at the bank has preserved for technical examination, a Garda spokesman said.
The gang is believed to have used a white Subaru getaway car and a second car to pull a trailer carrying the ATM. Gardaí chased one of the cars, which rammed a Garda car and escaped.
This morning's incident is one a series of similar ones in the South East in the past number of weeks. The spokesman told ireland.com the incidents were being investigated separately although there were "obvious comparisons".
"There is no concrete evidence to link the incidents, although there are similarities. We are keeping an open mind," he said.
In the early hours of Saturday morning a gang using a mechanical digger ripped a bank machine from a wall in Taghmon, Co Wexford. Gardaí initially thought the gang had made off with the machine, but it was later found under rubble with the cash inside.
Earlier this month, raiders who tried to steal an ATM from a bank in Co Kilkenny were foiled by gardaí.
A stolen tractor was used by three men to prise the cash dispenser from the wall of the Bank of Ireland, on Green Street, Callan, 10 miles from Kilkenny city, at 2.50 a.m. on July 8th.
A city-based Garda patrol car received a call from a local person to say there were men acting suspiciously near the ATM. When the squad car arrived, the men sped off in a car, leaving the tractor behind.
The Callan incident came 10 days after a similar incident in Rosslare, Co Wexford in which thieves used a digger to rip an ATM from a bank wall before making their getaway with €140,000.
