The Bank

Friday, February 13, 2004

On Wednesday I paid an idiot $400 to rob a bank.

So far, the plan seems to have worked.

Now I'm trying to get my money back.

I had stopped by the autoteller to top up my wallet before going out to lunch. I was thinking about a coding problem, and was not paying a lot of attention. I was back at my car when I remembered that I had not picked up the ATM receipt. I usually throw them away anyway, but I had turned back to get it when I saw someone standing at the autoteller I had just left. I decided not to bother them, and left.

That evening, I was checking my balance on-line, and I saw that the $100 that I had withdrawn was followed by four other identical withdrawals of $100. I checked my wallet, and realized that I had left the ATM card in the machine, which was probably asking me if I'd like to make any other transactions.

This is where the idiot comes in. Gleefully withdrawing $100 at a time until the machine says the daily limit has been exceeded, the idiot leaves with the cash, completely oblivious to the fact that the entire procedure has been recorded on video.

The bank has listed the $400 as "contested". They cancelled the card, and they are sending me a new one. Maybe I'll get the money back. Maybe I just learned a $400 lesson. Maybe there's more than one idiot in this story.

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