Yesterday I had to take a late night trip Hornsey Police Station after narrowly avoiding my bank account being emptied by cashpoint criminals. On the way home from a night out at the theatre, I decided to get some money out from the cashpoint at the Post Office in Crouch End (on Topsfield Parade), at about 11pm. The cashpoint made lots of whirring sounds but didn’t give me my card back.
This made me suspicious and I suddenly realised there was a device attached to the card slot. A little look around and I also spotted a concealed camera positioned to video the key pad. With my card and a recording of me typing in my PIN, they would have had everything they needed to empty my bank account.
The hidden camera was only attached to the cashpoint with a magnet so I took it off and stuck it in my pocket and scarpered – slightly worried whether the people who were trying to steal my money were nearby watching me. Fortunately, I knew Hornsey Police Station was up the road and has a 24 hour front counter so I went in and gave the criminals’ camera to the police.
The officers at Hornsey Station who helped me were great, and it was very reassuring to speak to the police face to face. Sadly though, I’ve just had a call from CID to say they think its unlikely they will be able to identify the culprits – as there is no CCTV camera facing the cashpoint.
So I’m posting this story to remind people of the need to be vigilant when using cash machines in the area and to look out for devices attached to the card slot. They are very cleverly concealed and I only noticed at the very last minute just as I was about to walk off thinking it was just a faulty machine.
And I’m also posting this to highlight the importance of police stations remaining open 24 hours. This has been a big issue in Haringey recently with Lynne Featherstone battling to keep the front counter at Wood Green Police Station open 24 hours (story here). I think I slept sounder last night because I’d been able to speak to the police and hand over the criminals’ hidden camera. I’m not sure what I would have done if the police station had been closed.