ATM thief caught trying his matchstick trick

BANGALORE: This PU drop out dreamt of making big bucks an easy way, without calling for trouble. After volumes of research, he found his road to success. And what could be more bright than a matchstick to show him the money. However, his thievery skills did not help him for long, as he has landed in the police net.Manish Kumar Singh, 22, a native of Jharkhand, came to the city about two years ago in search of a livelihood, but failed to find a career which suits his qualification.Yet optimistic of making money, he learnt to make ATM machines defunct by using matchsticks. His modus operandi: insert matchsticks beneath the enter key in ATM machines, make it not work after customers enter their PIN code, and after they left the counter thinking the machine was not working, he used to take out the stick and draw money from their account.Halasur Gate police have arrested him and recovered Rs 6,000 cash from him.The police had received a compliant from Nandini, an executive engineer and Lakshman, both employees of KPTCL that Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively were fraudulently drawn from their account on December 27.The cheating had taken place at the ATM centre of SBI Bank in Cauvery Bhavan.“The footage of the CCTV camera in the centre was examined and a watch was kept around the centre. Finally, he was nabbed on Monday, when he came near the centre. During investigation he revealed that he used to put the stick beneath the ‘enter key’ and waited outside for a customer. Once they entered the PIN, he noted it down, waiting outside.After they left, he used to re-enter the PIN and withdraw the money,” the police explained.He resided at Saptagiri Extension on Hesaraghatta main road along with his younger sister, an engineering student. The police also suspect that one of his friends was also behind the cheating and are on the look out for him. It is said that the duo were involved in similar cases reported across the city.