Texas man locked in a bank ATM room feeds out notes asking for help

Some stories you just can’t make up. A Texas contractor was changing a lock on the door of a bank’s ATM room which is currently being remodeled. When he finished his work, he suddenly realized he didn’t have his keycard on him to exit the room and he also didn't have his cellphone. As he became aware of customers using the ATM, he slipped notes through the receipt slot, begging them for assistance.

Contractor fixes the lock but finds he is locked in

As reported by NBCDFW, the contractor was working in a room that gives access to the back of an ATM at the Bank of America in Corpus Christi on Wednesday when it happened.

Unfortunately he left his keycard and his cellphone in his truck, so he couldn’t open the door to exit the room, nor could he phone bank employees or his boss for help.

Man sends notes asking for help through the ATM receipt slot

As reported by ABC News, Lt. Chris Hooper of the Corpus Christi Police said the contractor, whose name was not released by police, was passing notes out through the ATM slot asking customers to help him and explaining that he was stuck in there and didn’t have his phone. He also asked customers to phone his boss.

According to Hooper, several of the customers seemed to ignore the note, believing it to be a gag of some kind. However, one finally did call the police, after he heard a tiny voice emanating from inside the ATM. When police arrived at the bank, one of the officers kicked down the door and freed the contractor.

Officer who responded tells his story

Corpus Christi police officer Richard Olden was the officer who freed the trapped contractor and said it was a once-in-a-lifetime situation that will probably never be seen or heard about again.

Olden explained that the contractor left his keycard and phone in his truck and was locked inside the ATM room.

He said when a customer finally called the police and they arrived on the scene, they could hear the man’s voice coming from the machine. They said to themselves that it had to be a joke.

However, as quipped by WPXI in the video below, Olden eventually kicked in the door and “withdrew” the trapped contractor from the ATM room. He said while everyone was OK, it was a crazy situation. It was something you would never see again in your lifetime, with someone getting stuck in the ATM. It turns out that the contractor was stuck in the room for around two hours.

One YouTube user, gchsbus, commented on the video to make an excellent observation. He said the incident proves the point that when you have access to all that money, but no access to food or water, money just isn’t worth anything.