ATM: Two women return $1m

Two Jamaican women have been lauded for returning the sum of $1 million recently left at an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) stand at Portmore Mall, reports The Gleaner.

A legal secretary, Ms Dhaima Brookes, who initially on December 28, discovered a white plastic bag containing several neat stacks of $1,000 bills alerted another woman who turned out to be a policewoman and jointly they ensured that the found money was deposited with the police authority despite verbal abuse from some standby in the vicinity.

According to the report, the bag was lying on the floor and had been left by a cash carrier that had failed to secure it in the ATM. After learning of her discovery, mall goers threatened and taunted her, causing Brookes and a nearby police officer to flee to safety at a local police station, where they promptly handed over the money to representatives of the Guardsman cash delivery service.

The reports also said that the undeterred by any possible temptation to walk away with the money, Brookes displayed an act of goodwill, which angered many when she handed the money over to the authorities.

Brookes was cursed by persons at the mall who witnessed the discovery after she stumbled on the 10 stacks of $1,000 bills neatly packaged in a white plastic bag.

Speaking after making her statement to the Waterford police in Portmore, Brookes recounted how she attempted to draw cash from one of the two ATMs at the plaza.

The other machine was being serviced by two Guardsman armoured security personnel.

“My card wasn’t working, so I let someone go ahead of me when I noticed a white bag was on the floor in the other ATM,” she said.

After deliberating on her next move, Brookes alerted the woman who was in the other ATM. She did not realize, however, that the woman, Michelle Lewis, was a policewoman attached to the Elletson Road Police Station in Kingston.

“I knew whoever we gave the money to I would need to have all of their details,” Lewis said. “So I held the package tight to my bosom. I wouldn’t give it to anyone but the Supe (superintendent).”


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