People using an ATM in Corpus Christi, Texas, last Wednesday got a surprise along with their cash: a scribbled “help me” note pushed through the receipt slot. “Please help,” read the note. “I’m stuck in here and I don’t have my phone. Please call my boss at 210-***-****.”
Most thought it was a prank, but after one concerned user flagged down a police officer, they discovered a man had been trapped inside the ATM for hours. “We come out here, and sure enough we can hear a little voice coming from the machine,” Officer Richard Olden told CNN affiliate Action 10 News. “So we are thinking this is a joke. It’s got to be a joke.” It wasn’t.
According to The New York Times, while the ATM itself was functional, the bank it was attached to was closed for construction. A repairman had been repairing the ATM from a room behind it when he accidentally locked himself in—with no phone and no bank employees around to hear his cries for help. When he heard people making transactions on the ATM, he would slip them a note but most customers just ignored them or thought it was a practical joke. “He was kind of upset,” Gena Pena, a spokesperson for the Corpus Christi Police Department, told the Times. Um, yeah—I would be, too.
Someone did eventually call his boss and once he arrived on the scene, police officers kicked down the doors of the closed bank in order to rescue the man. Though he came out of the experienced unhurt (probably just in need of a bathroom break), Ms. Pena said he was “mortified.” Understandably, neither he or his repair company wanted to be interviewed. At least since he was trapped inside the ATM, people won’t recognize him as “that guy.”
Here’s hoping this man’s pride recovers—and we’re pretty sure he’ll never forget his phone in his car again.