KUALA LUMPUR, 19 March 2009: Faulty automated teller machines (ATMs) are the bane of bank customers desperate to withdraw money, but one homemaker had reason to be happy for the machines not being operational.
The woman, in her 20s, was blindfolded and in the clutches of four robbers who had earlier abducted her and tried to use her ATM card to withdraw money.
However, none of the five ATMs in Cheras, from which the desperados tried to withdraw money, was operational.
Fed up, the luckless robbers who had driven the homemaker to the ATMs in a Honda CRV during the five-hour ordeal, abandoned her behind the Bayu Tasik Condominium in Bandar Permaisuri, Cheras, about 2am today.
The woman who was unharmed, contacted a security guard at the condominium for assistance before she was reunited with her husband.
Cheras police chief ACP Ahmad Amir Mohd Hashim said the incident occurred after the victim had withdrawn RM100 from an ATM in Taman Midah, Cheras and was walking towards her husband who was waiting in his car nearby.
At that juncture, he said, one of four men in a Honda CRV grabbed the woman, forced her into the vehicle and blindfolded her.
The victim’s husband was unaware she was abducted.
“Snatching her RM100, handphone and ATM card, the robbers went to at least five ATMs in the Cheras district to withdraw the victim’s money.
“However, their efforts were in van as none of the ATMs was operational,” said Ahmad Amir, adding that she was subsequently released unharmed behind the condominium. — Bernama
