Another bank problem: ATM accidentally dispenses $40,000 to homeless man

[aGameOfThrones]

ATM accidentally dispenses $40,000 to homeless man

A homeless man thought it was his lucky day when a broken ATM kept dispensing money. Then cops were called to a bank in Portland, Maine, because the man wouldn't leave the machine. Police soon discovered that the malfunctioning machine dispensed nearly $40,000 in cash, which the man was trying to take by stuffing the bills into plastic bags.

The man, who won't be identified unless charges are filed, had only $100 to his name. Police say he was misusing the ATM's "cash advance" button and requested $700 cash advances more than 50 times. The feature is supposed to work when the customer has a pre-approved line of credit, but the homeless man did not. The ATM has since been taken out of service.

What the man was doing is illegal, cops say, but the bank won't press charges because the money was returned.
- - Jordan Valinsky


http://theweek.com/article/index/259431/speedreads-atm-accidentally-dispenses-40000-to-homeless-man

[chudrockz]

Kinda wish that would happen to me sometimes.

Once during my freshman year in college, I was playing cards with my roommates, and one went downstairs to get a pop. He came back up to tell us that some guy was standing at the pop machine looking confused, telling him that the machine appeared to be "counting" the quarters while just cycling them through to the change part, rather than keeping them. Without a word, all three of us grabbed some recycling containers and a few quarters, and went down and totally emptied the machine. We're talking HUNDREDS of cans of pop. About a day later we had to smuggle it outta the dorm under laundry in baskets, because they wanted to check everyone's rooms for the missing pop cans.

Ah, to be an eighteen year old aspiring beverage thief again. :)

[oyarde]

The homeless man may only have $100 bucks in his account , :) , but he has a better bank than mine , I do not think I can get $700 out of the ATM , never tried , but if I recall , the limit is less than that . Also :) , @ 40K , his line of credit is higher than the one I have set up . Seriously , how can a bank not be able to tell if there was a line of credit with that account number ? They have problems .

[tangent4ronpaul]

I remember one school I attended installed the latest and greatest new copy machines in a break room right next to all the vending machines. Problem was that they made copies that were a little too good... Yeah, high quality copy machines next to older vending machines with fairly dumb bill readers, um, yeah...

They pulled all the new copy machines.

-t