Customers at a Bank of America branch in Corpus Christi, Texas, expecting to have the ATM spit out $20 bills, also received cries for help, frantically written by a man trapped inside the machine.
Police say that a contractor was installing a new lock inside the ATM service room, and when the door closed behind him, he couldn't get it back open. He left his phone in the car and customers couldn't hear his shouts, but he did have a pen and paper. He started scribbling notes and shoving them out alongside receipts. "Please help," he wrote on one piece of paper. "I'm stuck in here and I don't have my phone. Please call my boss."
Most customers ignored his pleas for help. Finally one person believed the unidentified man inside the ATM and called police. "We come out here, and sure enough, we can hear a little voice coming from the machine," Officer Richard Olden told KRIS-TV. "So we're all thinking this is a joke — this has got to be a joke." The contractor shouted loud enough so the officers could determine he was locked in, and they went around and kicked the door down, setting him free. "You'll never see this again in your life," Olden said. "It was just crazy."
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