TAIWO FAROTIMI
Warning: When you cash some money at the automated teller machine, ATM, do check to ensure that the notes are legal tender. This time the culprits may not be some dubious bank officials, rather you probably may have been shortchanged by some daring rats. Rats? Yes, rats, those little creatures who you assume know nothing about the value of currency. But wait, they may not be close to you yet, it is happening in some places, and that is real.
Technicians have confirmed that rats successfully invaded an ATM machine in Tinsukia district , India, shredding bank notes worth 1.2 million rupees, equivalent of $17, 600, over N6 million!
So how did the rats succeed in their exploits? Technicians suspect that they may have gained entry through the passage of electrical wires that power the machine.
Though the police have commenced investigation, they too may be considering the cable line theory. They, , by the account of police official Prakash Sonowal, suspect that the technicians may be right, because the machine had been idle for 12 days ahead of the discovery. What that means is that the rats could gain access without fear of electrocution.
Reports say the technicians were able to salvage 1.7 rupees, about $20,000. Imaging what would have been lost if they had had more days. The rats sure had a field day. One of them, apparently over fed, was reportedly found dead in the rubble.
This is not the first time that rats were making headlines in India. And mark you, it is not about Lassa fever. In May last year, police authorities in the state of Bihar reported that rats took charge of a location where officials kept seized alcohol.
Manu Mahara, a top police officer reported police inspectors as stating that thousands of litres of alcohol impounded by police had been consumed by rats. No rat was arrested for the offence. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced a ban on alcohol consumption and sale in the state when he took office in 2016. The objective was to curb domestic violence, poverty and harassment.
To enforce the law, which prescribes 10-year jail term for offenders, the police launched searches on homes and shops, confiscating alcohol and arresting those in whose custody it was found. By the middle of last year about 40, 000 people had been arrested. But even the police had trouble keeping the confiscated item, such that they had to rent private properties to keep what the stations could not contain. Police authorities had to also audit the stations and keep a surveillance on their men to ensure that they do not violate the law they were meant to enforce.
