

He had programmed a stack of blank debit cards with stolen card numbers and was withdrawing as much cash as he could from each account. Indeed, the young man was in the act of “cashing out,” as he would later admit. The guy wasn’t stealing cars, but the detective figured he was stealing something.

Then he pulled out another card and did the same thing.

Pretending to use one of the machines, the detective watched as the man pulled a debit card from his pocket and withdrew hundreds of dollars in cash. detective, investigating a series of car thefts in upper Manhattan, followed a suspicious-looking young man with long, stringy hair and a nose ring into the A.T.M. One night in July 2003, a little before midnight, a plainclothes N.Y.P.D.
