Sophisticated criminals, evolving with advances in security and technology, have found new ways to hack and clone their way into the city’s countless A.T.M.s, their handiwork so invisible they slip away without notice.

This is not a story about those people.

This is a story about a small, dedicated burglary crew, one almost stubbornly set in its ways. Its members work with the stealth and finesse of a demolition team — resembling one, in fact, with their tools of blunt force.

The police said this crew has struck at least nine times in three boroughs in the last three months, their locations all different — bodegas, laundries, a diner — but with the same prize, a feature of modern convenience so common as to be practically invisible to regular customers.

They are after automated teller machines. Not the PIN codes of legitimate customers, not cloned debit cards, but the whole machine, from keypad to cord.