Strange Thoughts of a Strange Man

Last night, I stopped at an ATM to collect some money. I had to pay someone so I was taking rather a large sum out.

While I was there some shifty-looking bloke kept trying to get my attention but, in the way of most Brits, I ignored him.

Eventually, he pointed out a folded up ten pound note on the pavement and implied that he wondered if it was mine. I didn't get his drift entirely as I didn't want to leave the machine and his English wasn't too good.

I knew it wasn't mine as I don't carry folded-up tenners in my pocket although just in case I was wrong about that, I put my foot on it to stop it blowing away and carried on with my ATM transaction but that proved to be too much of a distraction and so I removed my foot at which point the shifty man grabbed the folded up tenner and ran off.

I can only assume this was some form of scam, a way intended to distract me from the machine so that an accomplice could either grab my cash or my card (assuming Mr Shifty also caught sight of my number). Luckily it didn't work.

To be certain, I also checked the ATM itself in case there was a bogus card reader.

Of course, I could have been wrong and the man could genuinely have been trying to find out if I had dropped the tenner but it didn't feel "safe" to me.

Labels: ATM, Cash machine, Crime, Scam