Mumbai: In an uncanny incident, an Andheri woman, who went to an ATM, found that she was recipient of Rs 96,000 in cash – in 500 rupee denomination – even before she could key in her PIN number.
When the shocked lady checked her balance, every single rupee was accounted for. No money had been debited from her account; there was no customary SMS on the purported withdrawal either.
Recounting the incident at a private bank's ATM in Sagar Tech Plaza in Andheri East, the woman said that when she inserted her debit card, the machine generated a strange noise; momentarily, taken aback,
she quickly removed her card and decided to move to another machine in the same kiosk; but before she could do that, the first machine had started spewing out currency – a surge of notes in Rs 500 denomination.
On regaining her composure, the lady handed over the cash to an ATM security guard identified as Seshnath Yadav; both of them counted the money -- it was Rs 96,000.
The woman left a video message on the Close Circuit Television camera after she failed to reach out to the bank over phone and left the ATM.
In the said incident, when the FPJ tried to reach out to the bank, its representative said, "In this particular ATM, there are two machines -- one for withdrawal and another for depositing cash.
Rather than going to the cash dispenser, the woman went to the deposit machine; when she inserted her card, the flap opened and the money which belonged to another customer tumbled out".
It is understood that this happened because before her another person had tried to deposit Rs 96,000 in the machine; that person left the ATM after keeping the cash in the depositor but that transaction did not go through and the person left without checking, explained a bank's representative.
The representative further said that, "We have informed both the customers and are trying to ascertain what went wrong."
A part of the problem is that no ATM dispenses Rs 96000 in one go; although the daily withdrawal limit ranges from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000, the cash is despatched in multiple transactions.
