Please help' notes from ATM slot about person stuck inside? A prank, right? Not this time.

With all the prank videos and televised social experiments observing how everyday people react to odd circumstances, it's no surprise that folks who pulled up to a Bank of America ATM machine Wednesday in Corpus Christi, Texas, were skeptical.

Image source: KZTV-TV video screenshot

After all, what would you do if a handwritten note emerged from your ATM's receipt slot asking for help and indicating that a person is stuck inside?

It seems a number of ATM users passed off the notes as some kind of joke and did nothing, but then one finally thought it might be wise to at least contact police, KZTV-TV reported.

And it turned out to be no joke.

Police told the station that a contractor was changing a lock to a room connected to the ATM and got locked inside. His phone was in his truck, so his only option was to slide "please help" notes through the receipt slot when customers approached, KZTV reported.

One read, "Please help. I'm stuck in here and I don't have my phone. Please call my boss ..." The phone number was redacted for TV cameras.

Image source: KZTV-TV video screenshot

"We come out here, and sure enough we can hear a little voice coming from the machine," Corpus Christi Police Senior Officer Richard Olden told KZTV. "So we are thinking this is a joke. It's got to be a joke."

Corpus Christi Police Senior Officer Richard Olden (Image source: KZTV-TV video screenshot)

The station said police called the contractor's boss and he  was soon set free — after being trapped in the room for about two hours.

"Everyone is OK," Olden said to KZTV, "but you will never see this in your life, that somebody was stuck in the ATM, it was just crazy."