Both the Victim and the Perpetrator
1991, I’m 19, just signed the lease for my first (solo) apartment, and just got the first paycheck from my new job. I deposit the paycheck at an ATM, another first! I’d always gone into the bank to do it. Two weeks later, I get my bank statement in the mail, and see with horror I have only $1.87 in my account.
Way wrong, I should have at least $200, I’d been very careful with my spending. I’m freaked, I came within $2 of bouncing my first rent check. I’m literally reaching for the phone to call the bank when the phone rings. It’s the authorities, asking if my ATM card was taken.
I check my wallet and the card is missing; my job at a theater pub came with cash tips so I didn’t use the card often. I then tell them I was going to call them anyway because I was missing $200 from my account.
“Well, we’ve got your card, and your $200, so come down to the station,” they tell me. I can’t figure out how they have my card AND the cash. Doesn’t make sense. I drive down there.
Detective says someone (let’s call him Bob) pulled in to use an ATM and saw a man acting suspiciously while he was using it, moving back and forth as if trying to dodge the camera. Bob says the man then left the ATM, got into a car, and drove away at high speeds as if fleeing.
Bob then went to the ATM and put his card in, which popped out. Bob then withdrew $200, and then another ATM card popped out. My card. Bob’s card had popped out because the crook had left my card in the ATM before speeding away.
Bob realized he had withdrawn the money from my account and not his, so he brought my card and the cash to the authorities and reported the attempted theft. The detective gives me the description of the crook. It made my blood run cold.
According to Bob, it was a man, 5’7″, brown hair, round gold-rimmed glasses. I say out loud “So, about my height, my color hair, and glasses like mine,” before realizing Bob was describing me.
I’d never deposited a check in an ATM before, so I was moving back and forth, following the instructions on the screen, filling out the envelope with my account number, punching the amount in, etc. I then forgot to take my card out and just left because I’m a frigging idiot.
I drove away at high speeds because I was 19 and that’s how I drove everywhere. Worried the detective might be annoyed, I didn’t tell him I was the crook, I just thanked him and left with the money I took from myself. Somewhere in a box in my closet, I still have the report where I’m both the victim and the perp.