STRATEGIC PARTNERS
February 24, 2002
KENT, Wash. -- A thief who withdrew, and then returned, $250 from an ATM may have been overcome by an attack of conscience -- or maybe he or she was worried about the bank surveillance camera.
According to the Associated Press, 58-year-old James Brummett was in a hurry to get $30 before heading to a Seattle Mariners baseball game and left his card in a machine at a suburban Bank of America branch.
After learning his card was missing, he went to the bank. A teller checked the account records and saw two withdrawals -- one of $150, followed by another of $100. These transactions were followed by a third transaction that someone other than Brummett made -- a deposit of $250.
"They either went home and their conscience got to them, or they went home and somebody told them" about the surveillance camera, Brummett
said. "Was it conscience or the camera that made them put the money back? I would guess the camera."
