Drive thru ATM incident

[Bubba]

Tuesday night 7PM 3-1-2005 EECU in downtown Fort Worth. This ATM is a separate outbuilding in the parking lot about 10 feet square. The parking lot and 3 sides of this building were well lit. The suspect was standing in the shadowed side next to the street. A nice, clean, big SUV was at the ATM and the female driver was not close enough to make her transaction without opening her door. Ladies, this is not good and makes you more exposed!

I pulled into the parking lot and stopped about 2 car lengths behind the SUV while watching the suspect. Yes, I was driving one-handed at this point :)
The suspect approached my vehicle with his right in his pants pocket and I could see that his hand was closed inside his pocket. Already too many red flags at this point, wrong place, wrong time, wrong actions, wrong body language, etc. I couldn't understand what he said because I didn't even roll my window down. There was no need to even engage in Q&A at this point. OK, so I'm rude and unfriendly sometimes, but I saw no reason to play his game. For the next 15 or 20 seconds, I just stared at his right hand / pocket area and shook my head sideways. He then returned to the ATM building. My cash withdrawl was completed without incident and I drove about 1 block down and stopped to contemplate a phone call. A FWPD unit drove by during that time and was headed towards the ATM so I left it at that.
After much afterthought, I think the suspect was looking for an easy and cooperative victim and decided not to push me. I'm thankful he didn't and I'm also thankful that my right hand was not empty, even though the suspect never saw what I was holding.

[one eyed fatman]

Sounds like you didn't want to get involved. Should have made that call.

[RatMan]

Sounds like you didn't want to get involved. Should have made that call.

By your comment it's obvious you don't know Bubba. If he had made the call the chances of the Fort Worth PD rolling on it would have been slim to none and, if they had rolled, it would have been at a minimum an hour before they did.

Trust me, Bubba is NOT one to "not get involved" in situations like this.

[HighVelocity]

I make it a point that nobody in my family is allowed to go to atm's after dark.

[one eyed fatman]

Glad I'm wrong about Bubba. FWPD sounds like Houston a number of years ago. It's not good having a nonresponsive PD. Once we got rid of the mayor the police departments here improved quite a bit.

[Bubba]

Sounds like you didn't want to get involved. Should have made that call.

I didn't want to have to shoot thru my window glass. When the suspect approached my truck, I was involved. I also made sure the woman in front of me was not bothered by the suspect either. I'm thankful that no aggression on my part was necessary. Wish you had been there "1 eyed fatman" :)

[one eyed fatman]

I never use ATM's. I don't have a ATM card. Never care to have one. There an an easy target. If someone isn't trying to rob you it's probably because someone else has put their own card reader in it so they can steal your card information and if they ain't doing that their wrapping a chain around it and hauling it off. They are trouble just waiting to happen.
I'm glad Bubba made it out of there safe. A lot of other people haven't.