Traditionally, cameras are activated by the slot where a customer inserts a card, said Rob Evans, director of industry marketing for ATM manufacturer NCR Corp. That generates an image when the card is inserted and again when it's removed.

"A lot of newer camera systems just simply give you continuous surveillance," Evans said. "It depends on this particular site."

Chapel Hill police have not said which Chapel Hill-area ATM captured the image of the man trying to use Eve Carson's ATM card. Evans estimated about 40 percent of ATMs have some sort of surveillance capability.

There are two main reasons to put cameras on ATMs, said Barry Schreiber, a professor at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota who has studied ATM crime.

The first is to verify transactions that customers say they did not make. The second is to investigate crimes at or near machines.

"They don't stop the crime from taking place, but they do provide some excellent leads," Schreiber said. "These low-level offenders, street thugs, are not thinking about getting caught."

It's nearly impossible to withdraw money without knowing someone's PIN, he said, but if criminals have someone's wallet with a driver's license, they can easily try a birthday.

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