LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- A crook went to great lengths to get the money inside an automatic teller machine early Sunday morning, but ended up putting his life in danger, police said.

Leavenworth police said a thief stole a Bobcat loader from a construction site about 1 a.m., then used it to pull an ATM out of the ground at the Frontier Community Credit Union near South Fourth and Walnut streets. His plan seemed to be to drop it over a cliff to bust it open, police said.

Only his scheme didn't go according to plan, officers said. And the Bobcat and the ATM ended up at the bottom of the hill.

Nearby resident Terry Mulcare said, "He didn't plan it too cleverly as he thought, since he managed to go down the hill with the ATM."

The suspect was trapped in the Bobcat wreckage and when police arrived, they rushed him to a hospital.

Leavenworth police said they are also investigating if the suspect threw hundreds of nails on the street next to the bank, to pop police car tires when they arrived at the crime scene.

Police didn't say whether any of the police car tires were punctured, but officers did close the road down.

Bank officials recovered the cash from the damaged ATM, police said.

Officers said the suspect suffered serious injury, but he is expected to survive.