Three men have been charged with bank robbery after a forgotten video game controller helped Tempe police identify the suspects who were arrested by FBI agents, authorities said.

Maurice Brooks, Micah Lazaro and Anthony Smith have been linked to a Houston-based crime syndicate specializing in ATM robberies, according to a release from the Tempe Police Department.

 An investigation began on Nov. 5 when three men targeted a Bank of America in Tempe at about 10 a.m. They confronted two ATM technicians fixing a drive-thru machine, ordering them to step away before grabbing  cash cassettes - containers that store bills for ATM withdrawals.

The suspects fled with approximately $279,000.

Surveillance footage captured “key details about the getaway car. But detectives got an even bigger break when GPS tracking devices hidden in some of the stolen cash cassettes led them to a nearby apartment complex within an hour,” the release stated.

There, they found the emptied cassettes and the vehicle abandoned by the suspects.

Inside the car, authorities also found a PS5 video game controller, which Tempe police said contained personal login information. That detail along with surveillance footage and other recovered evidence, helped Tempe detectives identify the suspects, according to the release.

Working with local, state and federal law enforcement, investigators linked the trio to additional ATM heists in the Valley and other cities, including Las Vegas, Tucson, Sacramento and Olathe, Kan.

The FBI arrested Brooks, Lazaro and Smith in Houston. They remain in custody. Two have been extradited, and one is awaiting extradition to Arizona on federal charges.

An investigation is continuing.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.