Rat breaches bank ATM in India, eats $18,000 worth of cash

When bank technicians in India were finally summoned to investigate why an ATM (automated teller machine) had not been working for days, they began to smell a rat.

What they found inside the ATM was almost $18,000 (approximately Rs 12,24,000) worth of shredded Indian rupee notes and one dead rodent that had somehow eluded the machine's security camera for its next, and last, meal, a State Bank of India (SBI) official said on Thursday.

"The ATM was out of order for a few days and when our technicians opened the kiosk we were shocked to find shredded notes and a dead rat," said Chandan Sharma, SBI branch manager in the town of Tinsukia in Assam.

"We have started an investigation into this rare incident and will take measures to prevent a recurrence."

Shredded currency notes were discovered when the ATM machine was opened. (Pic: AFP)

SBI is India's largest bank with more than 50,000 ATMs spread across the country. Most ATMs in India have a closed-circuit camera installed for enhanced security.

Though the CCTV footage has not captured any rat entering the ATM machine, the police maintain that there is no conspiracy angle. "We've checked and there is no other criminal or conspiracy to angle to the incident. It looks like the rats entered the machine through a small opening for some wires," district police superintendent Mugdhajyoti Dev Mahanta said.

Of the total $42,685 in the ATM machine, $25,022 were recovered intact. But banknotes worth $17,662 were destroyed.

Photographs taken by a local reporter after the ATM was opened showed fragments of grey and purple coloured notes of 500- and 2000-rupee denominations.