On Saturday, Shir, a 14-year-old resident of the Krayot, north of Haifa, returned to the Dan bus corporation, operator of the Metronit service up north, the sum of 5,000 shekels — roughly $1,300 — which dropped from an automated ticket machine when she was making a purchase.
Shir told Ynet that on Saturday afternoon this week she went up to the Metronit stop in Tzur Shalom, about halfway between Acre and Haifa, with a girlfriend, “and I was about to insert money in the machine to get a ticket when suddenly, even before I stuck the coin in the machine, it started spewing out coins at an enormous rate. More and more money was flowing out of the machine. Truth be told, I got scared and didn’t know what to do. But I knew I shouldn’t have left the place, because then someone would have stolen the money.”
Shir stayed put and called her father, who arrived quickly and called the police. A patrol car from the Zevulun District arrived and the cops took the money. A quick count showed the machine had let out 5,000 shekels, or $1,285.75 by today’s rates.
Shir said, “Of course, nothing like that has ever happened to me. First it was scary, then my girlfriend and I were laughing, because it was really funny. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it and didn’t tell my friends. I don’t think I did anything particularly special. I didn’t for a moment consider taking the money for myself. My parents said I did the right thing when I called them.”
Apparently, the Matronit management is planning to send Shir a nice thank you letter and a small gift.