Texas Contractor Trapped Inside ATM Slips Notes Through Receipt Slot: 'Please Help Me'

Bank-goers withdrawing cash from an ATM in Corpus Christi, Texas got more than their money's worth Wednesday afternoon when notes begging for help popped out of the receipt slot.

A contractor changing the electronic locks to the machine at a Bank of America's ATM was accidentally locked inside the room connected to the ATM outside and desperately sent S.O.S notes.

"Please Help. I'm stuck in here, and I don't have my phone. Please call my boss," read one of the notes.

According to local police, the unnamed contractor left his phone and swipe card in his truck and couldn't get out.

"He left his phone in his truck, he’s installing a new lock on the door, and he gets locked inside the building where the ATM is," Officer Richard Olden of Corpus Christi Police explained to local Texas station KRIS-TV.

A report in the Washington Post stated that officers on the scene estimated that the contractor — whose name and business was withheld from the report — was stuck in the ATM for 2 hours.

International Business Times attempted to contact the Corpus Christi Police to confirm the amount of time he was stuck in the room, but received no answer.

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Corpus Christi police lieutenant Chris Hooper confirmed Olden's account of the incident and said that the contractor was stuck Wednesday when he attempted to change the lock that leads to the ATM.

"You can’t just turn the knob and exit," Hooper told the Washington Post.

Since the ATM still worked outside while the contractor was trapped inside the ATM room, people who were routinely getting cash were met with notes slipped through the receipt slot.

Officer Olden said that at first, the people receiving the notes thought it was a joke, but eventually someone took the notes seriously and called the authorities. Police arrived at around 2 p.m. and had to kick down a door to get him out of the room.

"We come out here, and sure enough we can hear a little voice coming from the machine. So we are thinking this is a joke. It's got to be a joke," Olden said, adding that it was a "once in a lifetime situation."

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Twitter users agreed Thursday that they would have thought that notes coming from an ATM would be a joke while others were confused as to how someone could be stuck inside an ATM.