That's the stupid kind of thing I usually do!

[catalyst2]

I was just about to use the ATM today when a guy came charging back to the machine yelling something. I'm usually a bit twitchy around ATM's any way but this frightened the shit out of me. Turns out he had used the machine a few moments before I had got there and had put the receipt into his pocket but put the cash he had withdrawn into the bin for receipts. When we looked in the bin, sure enough, there were some $50 notes in there but they were out of reach.

The bin is a deep steel box which opened with a key, featuring just a single narrow slot to put discarded receipts through. We tooled around for a few minutes trying to get the notes out of that tiny slot. We stopped because the sight of two scruffy middle-aged men jabbing pens and other objects into the ATM and saying things like "Get it! Get it!" and "Push harder the other way next time!" started to attract attention. Eventually Chris (the other guy introduced himself to me eventually) left me to "guard" the bin while he went off to get the Shopping Centre Manager (yes, it was a mall-based ATM, not a bank-based one). When Chris and the Manager came back, all the Manager could promise to do was ask the ATM security collection people on Monday to open the bin, hoping that no-one had removed the $300 in the meantime!

Good luck Chris!

Comments

[catalyst2.livejournal.com]

Damn, we never even thought of that one! We tried paper clips, a sheet of paper with some double-sided tape, a hacksaw blade and various other things but no luck. Part of the problem was that the slot is so narrow that, even when you "hook" a note successfully, there's almost no room to manipulate it to get it moving.