Hungry Rat Eats More Than $17,000 in Cash Inside of ATM

While New York rats eat pizza, a rat in India found a different kind of food: cash.

A rat in India has reportedly eaten more than $17,000 worth of cash after it found its way into an ATM in the northeast region of the country.

Bank technicians in Tinsukia, a town located in the Northeast Indian state Assam, finally opened an ATM that reportedly stopped working last month and were horrified by what they found, reports Reuters.

They were met with the stench of a dead rat, which ate and shredded 1.2 million rupees, about $17,200, of the 2.9 million rupees that were in the machine. The rat managed to get inside the machine without being caught on its security camera.

"The ATM was out of order for a few days and when our technicians opened the kiosk we were shocked to find shredded notes and a dead rat," Chandan Sharma, the Tinsukia branch manager for State Bank of India, said Thursday. "We have started an investigation into this rare incident and will take measures to prevent a recurrence."

SBI is the largest bank in India, and operates over 50,000 ATMs throughout the country. Most have security cameras to catch thieves, but the ATM on this machine did not catch the rodent.

Journalist Karma Paljor posted a photo of the malfunctioning ATM, showing shredded rupees in 500- and 2,000-rupee denominations.

Yes! The rat did a fine job of making a very expensive nest worth 12 lakhs pic.twitter.com/SglTeV1Xum

— Karma Paljor (@Karma_Paljor) June 18, 2018

This is not the first time something other than money got stuck inside an ATM.

In July 2017, the story of a man who got stuck inside an ATM in Corpus Christi, Texas went viral. According to Buzzfeed, the man, who was not identified by police, spent three hours stuck inside a Bank of America ATM. Unfortunately, he left his cell phone in his car, so he could not call for help.

The man resorted to pushing notes outs the receipt slot, asking customers to call his boss. "Please help. I'm stuck in here and I don't have my phone. Please call my boss at [phone number]," he wrote on one note.

Eventually, someone finally got the attention of a police officer, who called other officers. At first, they thought it was a joke, but they later kicked down a door to rescue the man.

There have also been other stories of animals eating cash. In November 2016, a CNBC columnist wrote about a friend whose dog ate his cash. The friend later learned the Federal Reserve could replace the ruined bills.

The U.S. Treasury received an average of 30,000 claims of mutilated cash and redeems more than $30 million. A "mutilated" bill is defined as one that is less than a half of the original bill or needs special equipment just to find out what domination it is.

Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images