Mouse builds nest in ATM with $20 bills

Monday, August 10, 2009 | 9:21 AM

August 10, 2009 (LA GRANDE, Oregon) -- A mouse found inside an automatic teller machine -- along with a nest it had built with chewed-up $20 bills -- gave an Oregon gas station employee the surprise of her life.

The mouse, discovered Thursday, had thoroughly torn up two bills and damaged another 14 to line his nest. Employee Millie Taylor says she screamed and slammed the machine's door shut.

The bank replaced all the money that wasn't extensively damaged, and the ATM has continued to work just fine. The mouse also got a reprieve: He was evicted from his nest but set free outside the station.

Other workers at the Gem Stop Chevron in La Grande in eastern Oregon say they're mystified about how the mouse got inside the machine.

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"The bank replaced all the money that wasn't extensively damaged," so, does that mean the bills that were "thoroughly torn up" were left in the machine?