RE: ATM THIEVES

A TV-watching FrontBurnervian weighs in on the GPS ATM anti-thievery possibilities. For those interested in reading more and watching a documentary, check out after the jump.

That’s weird. I actually just watched a documentary yesterday that discussed just such technology already existing; however, the film uses that technology as an example of one of many frightening encroachments on our civil liberties. The documentary was done by Aaron Russo, who directed the Eddie Murphy classic “Trading Places,” and was intended to find the law that obligates US citizens to pay a federal income tax (hint, it doesn’t actually exist).*

Pretty interesting stuff if you’ve got nearly 2 hours to kill. Maybe by the end, you’ll join Ed Brown in New Hampshire in his attempt to bring down the IRS.

I forgot to mention, in case you don’t have the available time to watch the movie, that soon it ATM’s will be able to leave some kind of tracer on bills leaving information on who was the last person to withdraw it. Then, when you buy a slurpee, the bill is scanned through their system and someone somewhere will know that you just bought a slurpee. Just like a credit card.

*A helpful FrontBurnervian did some Googling:

Re the documentary that “was intended to find the law that obligates US citizens to pay a federal income tax (hint, it doesn’t actually exist).”

The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution provides: “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

26 USC section 1 states:

“Sec. 1. Tax imposed

(a) Married individuals filing joint returns and surviving spouses

There is hereby imposed on the taxable income of–
(1) every married individual (as defined in section 7703) who
makes a single return jointly with his spouse under section 6013,
and
(2) every surviving spouse (as defined in section 2(a)),

a tax determined in accordance with the following table:

If taxable income is: The tax is:

Not over $36,900…………. 15% of taxable income.
Over $36,900 but not over $5,535, plus 28% of the excess over
$89,150. $36,900.
Over $89,150 but not over $20,165, plus 31% of the excess over
$140,000. $89,150.
Over $140,000 but not over $35,928.50, plus 36% of the excess
$250,000. over $140,000.
Over $250,000……………. $75,528.50, plus 39.6% of the excess
over $250,000.”
It goes on to provide tables for heads of households, unmarried individuals, etc. And I’m not even a tax lawyer!

Not sure how we went from GPS devices in ATMs to federal taxes, but there.

RE: ATM THIEVES

A realistic FrontBurnervian pokes a hole in our anti-ATM-thievery plan:

The ATM is usually left behind or ditched nearby, after they bust it open and steal the cash. So a ‘LoJack’ device would be of little use.

What would be real cool is a system that if the machine is ‘tussled’ real hard, that the cash inside self-immolates and burns up, or that acid is poured onto the cash destroying it!

As I told him, a GPS device, even if it leads police to a then-abandoned warehouse, might lead to more clues. But then, I’ve been trying to catch up on The Wire, so my perception of crime-solving is admittedly distorted.