# What Just Happened? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 18, 2011, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125 "2011-08-18T06:25:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125/41 "2011-08-19T18:41:10Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Maybe an undercover cop meeting an informant? Meeting at the ATM would give the cop some unobtrusive security because of the camera. Both parties would have good reason to spook at anything even a little unexpected. I would expect a cop’s exit to be less … spectacular. They’d just nonchalantly drive away without attracting attention by peeling out. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125/42 "2011-08-19T20:05:21Z")
I’m thinking if it was a drug deal, they might meet at the ATM because one was going to get cash, but I can’t imagine why I would scare _them_. I’m really not scary at all. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125/43 "2011-08-19T22:05:07Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > The drug deal hypothesis seems unlikely to me, if only for the simply fact that ATMs have cameras in them. Yeah, the camera doesn’t have a great field of vision, and it would be relatively easy to do the deal in a corner of the lot out of its sight, but why take the chance, when there’s any number of other perfectly empty parking lots that aren’t right next to a surveillance camera. Customer gets into dealer’s car, they drive somewhere else (maybe just around the block), to make the deal, dealer returns to the original location, customer gets out and into his own car. At no point do the cameras see money or drugs exchange hands. A cheating couple sounds more likely. Either or both avoided using their cellphones out of fear of being caught by their SOs. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125/44 "2011-08-20T02:49:07Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I’m thinking if it was a drug deal, they might meet at the ATM because one was going to get cash, but I can’t imagine why I would scare _them_. I’m really not scary at all. I have to vote for drug deal. And YOU personally didn’t scare them…just the fact you weren’t the person they were expecting. Maybe they thought you were part of a sting, and that’s why they took off like bats out of hell. People meeting to have a “romantic encounter” don’t do it in bank parking lots, simply because there is too much traffic and too much light for something that will have them parked there for a good while. They use church parking lots, and remote corners of shopping centers. But drug deals…heck, they know the ATM camera can’t see them over there, and it makes it a one-stop deal…get money, then get the drugs and go before anyone gets suspicious. They have a legitimate reason for being there late at night (using the ATM) and unless a crime is committed and reported, no one is ever going to see those security tapes before they are reused. You should really use a drive-up ATM late at night, ya know… ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125/45 "2011-08-20T03:51:55Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > True. But drug dealers just aren’t going to make a deal in front of a bank. No way no how. I don’t know about that. I knew a drug dealer who would make deals in front of the all-night cafe where all the cops were drinking coffee. Out of some weird sense of machismo or something, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125/46 "2011-08-20T04:49:14Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > You should really use a drive-up ATM late at night, ya know… If my bank had such a thing, I would. It’s a credit union. All the ATMs are either inside or in grocery stores. This one is inside the bank’s foyer. The bank is in a strip mall with a back side lot. (off the main street.) For all I know, this sort of thing goes on every night there. I go to the bank in the daytime 99% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125/47 "2011-08-20T05:10:16Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Can I have $20? > > Or, failing that, tree fiddy? Dammit, I ain’t givin you any tree fiddy! I didnt’ give no tree fiddy to no damn lockness monsta, so I shure as hell ain’t giving it to you! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-just-happened/593125.md?page=2)