8-year-old girl gets lost on her way home and seeks help at an ATM

8-year-old girl gets lost on her way home and seeks help at an ATM

A worried girl got lost and used an ATM to return to her family.

The 8-year-old child in Quzhou, China, was separated from his grandfather on July 30 after leaving a dance class, according to the South China Morning PostUnable to find him, the girl went to an ATM, where she pressed an emergency button and was connected to the bank’s call center.

The girl told a Quzhou Rural Commercial Bank employee over the phone that she was lost and did not know the phone numbers of her family members. The employee called the police and stayed on the line to comfort her.

Officials from the Kaihua County Public Security Bureau arrived at the scene to reunite the girl with her family. Global times reported that police escorted her home because they knew her address.

A report obtained by the news agency said the girl’s mother explained the ATM call buttons to her and advised her to find one if she ever found herself in a situation where she needed help.

A stock photo of ATMs.

Getty


Several Chinese media reported that many ATMs in the city have two types of emergency buttons near the machines, an emergency call button and an emergency alarm button.

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In the U.S., some ATMs have emergency buttons, but they are not standardized. A long-standing myth is that ATMs will alert authorities if the user mistypes their PIN number, but the Associated Press reported in 2022 that “no known ATM in the U.S. has this feature.”

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