Employees of the Primera in Nuenen were shocked Tuesday morning when they suddenly saw a large white cloud of fog coming towards them. Shortly after a customer had withdrawn money, the ATM’s security system went off. Within twenty seconds the shop was filled with mist. Horrified, everyone fled the mall. “Everyone was in a panic,” says owner Rien van den Reek.
“This is the culprit,” says Van den Reek on Tuesday afternoon when he points to the yellow Geldmaat in his shop. There is still some junk around the machine. “The generator was all greasy and messy. It was a mess. It’s still covered in grease and it’s slippery on the ground. Someone has even fallen here.”
The vending machine’s security system had suddenly gone off that morning, sending out a lot of fog. “It went very quickly. The whole store was full within twenty seconds,” the owner of the Primera recalls.
“I have never experienced this.”
He shows surveillance footage of the moment when things went wrong. It can be seen that someone took money from the machine and walked away. A few seconds later, fog sprayed from the ceiling and the screen went blank. “I’ve never experienced this before. It was really scary.”
The cloud of fog spread throughout the mall. “The panic was very great. Of course you are not used to that. The alarm went off everywhere.” Police and firefighters soon arrived at the mall. Everyone had to wait outside until the cloud cleared.
“I hope I never experience this again.”
After about 45 minutes everyone was allowed back inside. Van den Reek’s shop was full of junk, but he does not know exactly why the system went off. “According to the people of Geldmaat, something may have broken in the electronic system. They said that they had only experienced the system go off spontaneously twice before.”
For Van den Reek it is now mainly a matter of waiting until the problem is resolved. “The people at Geldmaat are looking into what is broken and how to fix it. Then it has to be cleaned. I think it will all take a few days.” In any case, he knows one thing for sure: “I hope never to experience this again”.
Images of the fog cloud in the store are at the top of this article. Below you can see how the shopping center was evacuated:
