Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 4, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A 70-year-old man returned from a vacation to find his bank account empty.

The Yellowknife resident was visiting Pattaya, Thailand when his card got stuck in an automated teller, according to an RCMP report.

According to police, the man said he had observed a few youths around the machine but did not report the stuck card to the police.

It's not clear whether the machine was at a bank or a stand-alone cash machine.

Upon returning to Yellowknife, the man found that his bank account had been emptied. He reported the incident to Yellowknife RCMP on March 13.

Police didn't say how much money was taken from the man's account.

The man, however, might be out of luck, as RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich said that the incident should have been reported while in Thailand.

"We have no jurisdiction, there's really nothing we can do," said Dreilich.

"There's no way to track it from this end."

The man could be reimbursed by his financial institution if it is determined that this is a case of debit card fraud, said Tina Romano, public relations manager for the Interac Association.