Police, Banks Help Undocumented Workers Shake ‘Walking ATM’ Label : NPR
On a recent Friday evening in Langley Park, Md., police officer Juan Damian drives his patrol car past fast food restaurants, discount stores and Hispanic groceries.
Damian estimates that at least two-thirds of the people here are undocumented, and that has made it a magnet for robberies over the years. Gangs know undocumented day workers are especially lucrative targets, he says. Their pockets are often stuffed with a day’s or even a week’s worth of wages. The street term for these men: “walking ATMs.”
Damian says workers are afraid to leave the money where they live because they may be sharing an apartment with a dozen or so others.
A thief will “see people walking down the street, ask them for the money and rob them for whatever they have, get in the car and leave because they don’t call the police,” Damian says.
More: Police, Banks Help Undocumented Workers Shake ‘Walking ATM’ Label : NPR