BENGALURU: A 54-year-old woman learnt only too late, never to write down an ATM pin on a piece of paper. She had kept the piece of paper with her debit card in a little purse, which fell into the hands of two women pickpockets, who swiped out Rs 40,000 from her account. The victim, Maya K, domestic help and resident of Sarjapur Road, filed a complaint with Bellandur police when she learnt of the theft.
Maya had boarded a BMTC bus from Karmelram bus stop around 10 am on June 10, when two women, dressed as students, boarded the bus and one of them sat next to her. The other stood near the women’s reserved seats. She was on her way to pick up her sick mother and take her to hospital. Maya, who didn’t know the address where she was to get off, asked the women -- aged around 20 years -- where she should get down. The woman replied but Maya did not understand as she knows only Malayalam and Tamil.
The women got down at Total Mall bus stop in Bellandur. Maya continued her journey till Iblur junction and wanted to call her mother. When she was looking for her mobile in her purse, she noticed that her purse which she kept inside her handbag was missing. Maya had kept her debit card, Aadhar card, voter ID card and some slips in the purse. On one, she had mentioned the ATM pin.
Between 10.30am and 10.35 am, she received four messages from her bank, alerting her about withdrawals of Rs 10,000 each -- in all, the pickpockets had withdrawn a total of Rs 40,000 from her account.
Maya, who didn’t know how to block her account, called her employer and gave the details. He took her to the police station and helped her filed a police complaint. An investigating officer said, “The pickpockets went to an ATM kiosk of IndusInd Bank near Total Mall and withdrew the money. We are currently investigating the case and have asked bank officials to give us the CCTV footage of the ATM.”