Probe begins on theft of Anambra visually-impaired woman’s ATM card

The Anambra State Police Command has said it has begun an investigation to unravel how a yet-to-be-identified lady allegedly stole an Automated Teller Machine card belonging to a partially sighted-aged woman and emptied the account within minutes.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the incident occurred at an ATM location in Nnewi, Nnewi North Local Government Area of the Anambra State, over the weekend.

A video monitored by our correspondent on Thursday indicated the moment when the lady swapped the old woman’s ATM card at the ATM location after the victim had filed a complaint of receiving several debits on her account.

A 42-second CCTV footage of the incident, which has been circulating on social media, also corroborated the incident.

The video showed when the young lady took advantage of the elderly visually-impaired woman, swapping her ATM card, disappeared from the scene, and went to another ATM card to empty the account within minutes.

Narrating her ordeal on Thursday, at the bank (name withheld), the elderly woman, a widow, said, “I visited the ATM to withdraw cash but due to my visual impairment, I struggled to operate the machine.

“A bystander, a lady, wearing a red top and black trousers, offered to assist me.

“However, in the process, she swapped my ATM card with a fake and expired card, having already obtained my PIN. The lady then left the scene, as I was unaware of the swap.

“But shortly after, as I was struggling to operate the card, I began receiving debit alerts on my phone and up to N2m was withdrawn in parts.  And when I came to the bank to complain, a CCTV of the incident was played back and there, the lady was spotted. This is very unfortunate at a critical period like this that I need money to make transactions.”

Responding to the development, when our correspondent visited the said bank on Thursday, an official who craved anonymity, because she was not authorised to speak, cautioned people against disclosing their ATM pin to anyone they meet at the ATM point.

“The incident highlights the need for vigilance and caution when using ATMs, especially for vulnerable individuals such as the elderly and those with disabilities.

“Do not disclose your ATM pin to anyone you meet at the ATM point. If you are encountering any issue, notify the bank personnel for assistance to avoid a situation like that.

“The culprit in question under the guise of helping the woman, obtained the victim’s pin, collected the card and swapped it with an expired one and left immediately to another ATM location and started withdrawing the money to the extent that she emptied her account. That was very wicked.

“Although the CCTV has captured the culprit, it is now left for security agencies to use it to investigate and bring the culprit to book. This can be done with community involvement because the culprit must be living within them and people may know her. It is unfortunate what has happened to the victim,” she added.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Anambra State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, who confirmed the development on Thursday, said police intercepted the trending video and have begun investigations into the incident.

Ikenga said the Commissioner of Police, CP Nnaghe Itam, showed concern about the incident and directed the Public Relations Office of the command to contact the victim for necessary information that would aid the investigation.

He added that the CP further directed that all intelligence-gathering tools of the command should be deployed to identify the suspect and bring her criminal gang to book.

Ikenga said, “The Anambra State Police Command has intercepted a trending video of an unidentified lady in an Automated Teller Machine of a commercial bank in Nnewi, who allegedly swapped an ATM Card belonging to a 58 years old (quinquagenarian) handicapped woman and withdrew the sum of N2m in parts.

“The command having commenced investigations into the incident, calls on anyone with useful information, especially residents of Nnewi and environs to help in identifying the suspect for possible arrest and prosecution.

“Preliminary information revealed that the unidentified lady suspect disguised herself to assist the victim and swapped the ATM card of the victim and a few minutes after the suspect left the ATM spot, the quinquagenarian received several debit alerts totaling the sum of N2m.”