When Jason Met Terry: An ATM Love Story

If money is the root of all evil, why do we all need it? This morning I looked into my wallet and sadly found that it was empty. Not even a single buck. Not a good situation when you have a friend in the mall offering 50% off Nike Shoes for today only. Being the lazy I person I am, I Googled the closest Wells Fargo ATM that was on the way to the mall. It was an area I wasn't too familiar with, but I was able to find it.

The bank was in a small industrial area. I drove into the parking lot and noticed that there was just one ATM machine outside. I could see a woman with one of those personal shopping carts from the 50s at the ATM. I parked my car and got out in the 90 degree weather and proceeded towards the bank. This bank is closed on Saturdays, which at the time meant nothing to me since I just needed to get a few bucks out of the ATM.

As I approached the ATM I noticed that the woman at the ATM was of a foreign descent. I'm going to be politically correct and not mention what country she's from. I'll give you a hint and tell you it starts with CHIN (now you be a clever cookie and figure out the rest). I'm not going to blame her race, nor the fact that she is a woman. No, that would not be wise. I might though, blame it on the gallon of milk she was drinking from in 90 degree weather. Or simply that she could not speak English. Whatever the reason, Terry (I saw her name on her ATM card) could not seem to get her money deposited.

I am a very passive person. I waited there in the heat and watched Terry struggle getting her dollars into the machine. (Wells Fargo ATMs have their machines process without envelopes so you can just deposit the cash and the bills get scanned. Its also made to take 50 bills at once.) I wish Terry knew this, because she was trying to deposit one bill at a time. After each bill was scanned she would say she was finished with her transaction, yet would be confused as to why her ATM card would pop out.

Five minutes passed. Suddenly I wasn't the passive person I've known myself to be. I got bold and approached her. I figured I was either going to help her now or strangle her later. I chose to help her now. Since she didn't know English I think she believed I was trying to rob her since she had a stack of bills in her hand. I told her she can put all the bills in at the same time and through enough hand gestures it became apparent to her that I was trying to help. So she starts putting in the bills and everything is dandy. It finally worked for her. Yay. She ended her transaction and her ATM card came out. I'm thinking thank God. I can get my money go.

I like to thank God often. God likes this. If God had a Facebook he'd click the Like button. I've learned that God also has a sense of humor.

Just when I thought it was going to be my turn at the ATM, good ol' Terry went into her purse and pulled out more money. She wasn't done yet. She once again put her ATM card in again to deposit more money, but ran into a new problem. She maxed out the amount of transactions for the day. Lord only knows how long she was there before I got there. At this point there was a small line of Terry protestors behind me. She didn't get it. I couldn't explain it to her either. I don't know the universal language for "you can't use this atm card for the rest of the day, now go home."

I told her to step to the side so others can go since she was having problems. I specifically, told her "Let us go first, then you can try again." I don't know what she thought I said, but she nodded and continued to try and deposit money. Even the ATM machine was beeping at her as if to tell her "go away." People actually left. They didn't feel like waiting. It seriously took Terry 10 minutes before she gave up. Funny part is, I ended up not buying anything at the mall.