3 SOUGHT IN ROB TRY ON TICKET MACHINE.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

ACTON - Detectives released surveillance camera photos of a middle-aged man and a couple in their late teens or early 20s using a sledgehammer to try to break into a Metrolink ticket vending machine.

The trio was apparently unaware that the Acton-Vincent Metrolink station is watched by both hidden and visible surveillance cameras.

``You can watch them spraypaint the one camera they were aware of. They put some thought into this,'' sheriff's Detective Chris Cadman said.

The trio was photographed on surveillance video about 2:30 a.m. March 31, which was a Sunday when the passenger trains don't run.

The would-be thieves failed to get any cash from the machine, the detective said.

``They just damaged it pretty good,'' he said.

The middle-aged man was seen recently in a Palmdale neighborhood trying to sell a truck for which he had no ownership papers, Cadman said. He said he was trying to sell the truck for a friend in state prison in order to put money into the friend's prison account for buying cigarettes and other things.

The older man was described as white, 35 to 40 years old, missing his front teeth and with close-cropped hair. The young woman was described as white and about 17 to 21 years old. The young man was described as white and 17 to 21 years old, with short bushy hair.

Anyone with information about the trio was asked to call Cadman at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Metrolink Bureau at [phone] or the Palmdale sheriff's station at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) no caption (suspect that tried to break into ticket machine)

(2) no caption (suspect that tried to break into ticket machine)

(3) no caption (suspect that tried to break into ticket machine)