S'pore man returns S$2,250 cash he found in UOB ATM tray, urges people to be more careful

A man in Singapore arrived at an automated teller machine (ATM) at United Overseas Bank (UOB)'s main branch in Raffles Place on Apr. 9 evening, looking to deposit cash.

However, before he could do so, the ATM screen prompted him that a deposit of S$2,250 had already been made, and his only options were to confirm or cancel the transaction.

After the man pressed the cancel option, the ATM's tray opened with S$2,250 cash inside.

Au initially thought ATM was faulty

Speaking to Mothership, the man, surnamed Au, shared that he reached the ATM at around 6pm on Apr. 9.

His first thoughts upon seeing the message informing him of the S$2,250 deposit was that the machine must have been faulty.

When he was proven wrong, Au waited for the cash owner until he had to return to work later that evening.

As such, he took out the banknotes and held onto them temporarily before depositing his own cash.

At around 6:20pm, Au dialled the UOB hotline, and a bank employee advised him to return the cash to the same branch the next day.

Returned cash to UOB

On Apr. 10, Au arrived at UOB's main branch at around 1:30pm.

At the counter, he handed over the cash to a bank employee, who also reported the incident to a supervisor.

After drafting an incident report, the employee noted down Au's personal particulars and asked him to sign the papers.

The entire process took around 30 minutes, and Au left the bank at around 2pm.

Au surmised that the cash owner was likely making a transfer to another bank account at the ATM when he accidentally walked away before the transaction was completed.

Nevertheless, Au hoped to publicise his encounter so that others could be more careful when making ATM transactions.

UOB credited sum back to owner

In response to Mothership's queries, UOB's Group Channels and Digitalisation Managing Director Benny Chan expressed the bank's gratitude for Au.

"We thank this Good Samaritan for his honesty and public spiritedness in returning the money he found."

Upon receiving the cash, UOB reviewed the security footage of the ATM in question and identified the customer who had misplaced the money, said Chan.

"We have contacted the customer and credited the sum back to his account on Apr. 14," he added.

Top images via Au