Man finds $500 gone after forgetting to remove cash from ATM; CCTV shows woman suspected to have taken money

He'd absent-mindedly forgotten to take the $500 he'd just withdrawn from the ATM machine. When he went back about two minutes later, the money was gone.

The incident happened at Yew Tee MRT station on Aug 31 this year, Shin Min Daily News reported.

The 61-year-old man, surnamed Lee, told the Chinese daily that he had withdrawn the cash at a POSB ATM machine within the station between 10am and 10.03am that Thursday morning.

Lee recalled that he'd left after only retrieving his ATM card. He did not remember seeing anyone around him at the time.

"I went out to have a smoke, but two minutes later I remembered that I'd forgotten to take the cash out from the machine. But when I went back, the $500 was already taken," he said.

Lee immediately informed the bank and was told that investigations would take up to four days.

When he contacted the bank again, they confirmed that someone had taken the money, but Lee would need to make a police report for an investigation to be launched.

Lee told Shin Min that he made a police report the same day. He was told by police a month later that based on CCTV footage, the money had been taken by a woman, who was seen wearing a face mask.

"After two weeks I asked them about it again, and the police said the woman was in a blind spot and they were unable to investigate further," said Lee. He was told that he would be informed if there were any updates.

When contacted by Shin Min Daily News, the police confirmed that a report had been lodged and investigations are ongoing.

Lee shared that the missing $500 was from his salary, and he'd intended to use it to repay a debt owed to a friend. He also revealed that he'd just quit his job.

"I quit my job last month so this sum of money is very important to me. Although it's my mistake for forgetting to take the money, but the other party should not have taken it," said Lee.

Lee added that he had seen the same thing happen when he was withdrawing some cash from an ATM in Toa Payoh in May this year.

Lee saw that a man had forgotten to take the money he'd just withdrawn and had immediately alerted him to it.

"The person was from Malaysia and he had withdrawn $1,000. He was chatting with a friend and left without taking the money. It's not my money so I won't take it, it is wrong. But I didn't think that when the same thing happened to me, I would be so unlucky."

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candicecai@asiaone.com