Walking away from ATM without taking money

RussJK

For the first time in my life I actually walked away from the ATM without actually taking the money I'd withdrawn. Duh, idiot.

I realised a minute later and ran back, but by then the money was gone. Totally my fault, but in my defence I'm extremely tired today as students were hooting and screaming outside on their way past the house well past 4am last night and I didn't particularly sleep well.

Edit: Reported it to the bank, I'll wait and see if the money will reappear in my account. Hopefully will be lucky, and that there'll be no need for my whinge below!

Update: Great news! The money was returned into my account after two weeks Thanks for everyone's help.

kitty_cat_2

This has not happened to me, but I'm sure that I remember reading somewhere (maybe on this forum?) that if money is not taken from a cash machine, after a short time the cash is taken back into the machine. So I suppose that it depends whether someone was standing behind you and then took the cash?

Get in touch with the bank and let them know that this has happened. If the money has been taken back into the machine there must be some way that the bank will be able to check?

I'm sure that someone with more knowledge will be along to advise you. Sorry to hear this it must be very frustrating :mad:

ethansmum

What a bummer!

I know its a long shot, but why not phone the bank and see if it was handed in. Unlikely I know, but if I saw money in an atm, I would go inside the bank and hand it it.

I'm honest and proud of it, its sad that not everyone was brought up the same way.

InsideInsurance

The machine does reswallow the money if it is not taken within a timeframe and the transaction is reversed... not done it personally but have seen it happen and the money disappearing back inside.

Depending on how long ago it was that it happened either check with your bank and/ or the bank/ branch the machine was at. If it has been taken by an opportunist passerby then ask them to look at the CCTV that is installed in the machine as hopefully it will have caught the thief. Really optimistically they will have then used the machine themselves in which case their identity can be found from the transaction they made. You could try reporting it to the police but it will probably be an up hill struggle to get their interest unless you were withdrawing thousands.

MamaMoo_2

As others have said, the money gets hoovered back up inside.
Depending on the ATM, money is counted at the end of the day/week/every other day etc. If you phone your bank an tell them the location of the ATM, the date and rough time o the transaction, they will be able to cross reference this with the machine and then, if the machine had too much money in when it was counted, and the difference is the amount of your transaction (or more, if others have been forgetful) your money will be returned
I hope this is the case and that some sly git hasn't made themselves a quick profit!

McKneff

Been there, done that and thought I had lost it forever.
Didnt realise till someone told me about the machine taking it back in.
It was in my account balance in the morning.
Was there anyone behind you in the queue

fluffnutter

Have you been on to the bank, RussJK? Hopefully your money was just sucked back in

Polka_dot_zebra

If it has been taken, isn't that classed as 'theft by finding'?

bevanuk

Polka_dot_zebra wrote: »

If it has been taken, isn't that classed as 'theft by finding'?

Even so, good luck proving it.

Call the bank before worrying. It does 'hoover' it back up (great us of work above).

RussJK

Hi, thanks everyone for your kind responses. I didn't even consider phoning the bank or that it might have been sucked back into the machine.

On your advice I've phoned my bank and they've said they'll try to sort it out with HSBC to find out if the money went back into the machine. If it turns out that someone took it, I'll have to report it to the police as stolen and hope the police will ask HSBC for a video. They've said it'll take up to two weeks to sort out.

The money shows up on my account as being withdrawn, but OTH the machine was a HSBC ATM which a quick search suggests might not automatically refund people in these circumstances unless they raise the issue.

Appreciate the help; better trying to sort it out than me sitting here feeling sorry for myself and bemoaning the universe.

Edit: forgot to answer, I don't think anyone was behind me so there's a chance of it going back into the machine. OTOH I obviously wasn't paying attention to much.

Elle7

I think HSBC are one of the banks who will have to rebalance the machine, find the excess and match the records back to you before they will refund it. A bit slower then some other banks, but it still shouldn't take too long.