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OPENING SCENE: Camera pans up from a half-empty jar of peanut butter on a beach, to an ATM swaddled with crime scene tape. Flashing lights. A group of CSI agents silhouetted against a sepia sky. A pair of girls in bikinis strolls by.
WHITE CHICK: So what do we have here?
BLACK GUY: Seems like some sort of electronic theft.
WHITE CHICK: Electronic theft?
BLACK GUY: Yeah, it’s where money is taken out of your bank account without your knowledge or authorization.
HISPANIC GUY: Wait, they can do it?
WHITE GUY: Happens all the time. (disgusted) Big banks …
BLACK GUY: Here’s our victim.
VICTIM, elderly woman, sweater, hair in a bun: (confused) Hello officers.
WHITE CHICK: Can you tell us what happened?
VICTIM: Well, I put my ATM card into the ATM –
WHITE GUY: ATM?
HISPANIC GUY: Automated Teller Machine. It’s a service most banks offer to enable their customers easy, 24-hour access to their money.
WHITE GUY: (disgusted) Big banks …
WHITE CHICK: Let me get this straight. You put your ATM card into the ATM and –
BLACK GUY: Hold on, hold on. ATM card?
BLACK CHICK: Yes, it’s a plastic card, similar to a credit card (split-screen and triple-split screen shots of her showing the officers some credit cards from her wallet). See?
WHITE GUY: I don’t get it. Doesn’t make sense.
HISPANIC GUY: This strip, here, contains information about your account (black-and-white close up of the back of Victim’s ATM card). The ATM can read it once you punch in the correct PIN.
WHITE CHICK: PIN? I don’t follow.
BLACK GUY: Personal Identification Number. It’s a four-digit number you choose for yourself, kind of a specialized lock you put on your card.
WHITE GUY: So you select your own PIN?
BLACK CHICK: Right.
WHITE GUY: And the ATM reads it?
BLACK CHICK: Bingo. (to VICTIM) What happened next, ma’am?
VICTIM: My sight’s not so good, so I have to read the Braille keypad –
HISPANIC GUY: Braille?
WHITE CHICK: It’s a system consisting of raised bumps which enable blind people – or people with limited eyesight – to read. Each cell consists of a recognizable pattern corresponding to a certain letter, number, or grammatical symbol.
WHITE GUY: Keypad?
BLACK GUY: Yes – this (raps knuckles on ATM keypad). It’s a set of buttons arranged in a block to facilitate the inputting of information into a computer.
HISPANIC GUY: And then what happened?
VICTIM: My fingers got stuck! It was as if someone smeared peanut butter all over the keypad! Then the readout said that I had no money in my account! Can you imagine that? My fingers are all sticky!
RED-HAIRED ALBINO GUY: Looks like our Automated Teller Machine ... has its own set ... of sticky fingers.
ROGER DALTREY: Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Now that was funny. Sadly, close to the truth in what we now deem entertaining in "police drama". Just remember, the white, religious, corporate exec did it uncovered by the minority career criminal that just wants to help.
ReplyDeleteUncle
Uncle beat me to it...that was too funny! Bring back Joe Friday...Always
ReplyDelete