Customer Spends Nine Hours Trapped in Bank’s ATM Lobby

A bank’s ATM lobby, activated to lock automatically on Thanksgiving evening, trapped a man as he completed a withdrawal, holding him inside until a bank employee arrived for work Friday morning.

James Kahlke, 36, spent nine hours at a Raritan Township branch of Commerce Bank--pounding on a door, pacing, making periodic withdrawals and finally curling up on a rug to sleep.

From 9 p.m. Thursday, when he heard the door click behind him, until 6 a.m. Friday, when the bank’s assistant manager arrived, Kahlke was trapped in the ATM lobby.

“I heard a click and realized I was locked in,” he said. “There was no way to alert the outside world where I was. There was no phone, no alarm system, no way I could call for help.”

Commerce Bank spokesman David Flaherty described Kahlke’s experience as a “very freak accident” and said the bank is looking into the problem to find out what happened.

Kahlke said the ordeal convinced him to take his money elsewhere. “As soon as I made use of the phone and their facilities, I closed my account,” he said.