Merry Christmas Eve

Something happened last night that could have ruined someone's Christmas, but (hopefully) didn't.

On my way home from work last night I drove through the ATM at my bank to get some cash. I could have gone through the automatic teller lanes, but although I probably had a check somewhere in my wallet, I didn't feel like digging it out. There was someone in front of me in line, but she didn't take very long, and once she pulled away from the machine, I drove up.

When I looked at the screen, it said, "Please wait for your receipt." I kind of shook my head, thinking man, she must have been in a hurry. So I waited for her receipt, which I just glance at. It was dark, and I didn't have my reading glasses on, but in addition to whatever transaction she had been making, it also listed her balance, something around $400.

So I looked back up at the screen, getting ready to put in my PIN number, and the screen said, "Do you want another transaction?"

She had not only driven away leaving her receipt, but leaving her card in the machine, pre-loaded with her PIN number, just waiting for someone to come up and withdraw all the money out of her account. I shook my head again, punched "No," and waited while her card spit out of the machine. I got my own cash out of the machine, then pulled out of the lane, pulled back into the automatic teller lane, the "Business Lane," the one with the actual live human beings at the window, and told them that the person in front of me at the ATM had left her card and receipt.

I assume at some point she'll realize she left her card and come back for it; I was just lucky that the bank was still open--it was nearly 7:00, when they close, and I have no idea what I would have done with the card if they had already been closed. Mail it back to the bank, maybe, or I guess I could have dropped it in the night deposit slot, although I'm not sure that's possible without having to enter some kind of code. Anyway, it was interesting, and interesting to think how easy it would have been, if I had been a dishonest person, to clean out someone else's account.

I don't know, maybe there are cameras on the ATM at all times and I couldn't have gotten away with anything anyway, even if I'd wanted to, but it's always fun to try to figure things out, even if it's something I'd never do.

I still remember that news story awhile back about the person who impersonated a bank guard and re-enacted the robbery scene from Neil Gaiman's American Gods: You dress up like a bank guard, get an official looking strongbox and a pad of receipts on a clipboard, and go station yourself near a bank's night deposit facility after the bank has closed, and just after the area businesses have closed. Put an "out of order" sign over the night deposit slot and wait.

When the tired, just-trying-to-get-home employees show up to deposit their stores' receipts in the bank, you tell them that the night deposit box is broken, but that you can accept their deposits, and you write them a receipt and put their money in your box.

When the deposits slow down, or you have enough money, take off.

It worked, apparently; the link to the newspaper article that originally reported it no longer works, but the note I made said that the conman duped nearly 50 businesses out of their day's deposits.

And on that note, Merry Christmas from the Christmas Cat!