Youth Tricks Bank Machine, Gets $650,000

A schoolboy outsmarted an automatic bank machine by using the cardboard from a lollipop packet to transfer 1 million New Zealand dollars into his account, officials said today.

Tony Kunowski, corporate affairs manager of the United Building Society savings and loans institution, said the 14-year-old student slipped the cardboard into an envelope and inserted it into the machine while punching in a deposit of $1 million--the equivalent of $650,000 (U.S.).

“We are not amused, but we don’t think this is the tip of an iceberg,” he said of the incident.

Kunowski said when the boy, identified only as Simon, 14, checked his account a few days after the deposit, he was amazed to discover the money had been credited. He withdrew $10.

When no alarm bells rang and no police appeared, he withdrew another $500. But his nerve failed and he re-deposited the money.

On Tuesday, Simon withdrew $1,500, Kunowski said.

But his nerve failed again on Wednesday and he confessed to one of his teachers at Selwyn College, Kunowski said. The school’s headmaster, Bob Ford, took Simon to talk with the executives at the United Building Society.

Ford said Simon had not been considered one of his brightest pupils--”at least until now.”

It was unknown if any disciplinary action would be taken.