You really should have spent 2 seconds typing in "ATM robbery" on google news:

http://news.google.com/news?q=ATM%20robbery

Woman pistol whipped, robbed at ATM
WTHR - ‎1 hour ago‎ Entertainment News from AP Indianapolis - Indianapolis officers are investigating a robbery at a walk-up ATM Friday morning. It happened around 7am in the ...

Yes people do still get held up for cash, and old people occasionally die over $10 or less due to drug addicts caring more about their next hit than the sanctity of life...

http://news.google.com/news/search?q=elderly+person+robbed

Great stuff,

Your comment:

> However the trick of asking the right person in the Halifax was probably not tried (and of course this is quite problematic, because you need to know who it is, and how to get them to open up, *and* get them to court).

This is difficult. See my comments in the last para of this article to explain: http://www.stephenmason.eu/articles/banking-the-pin-and-the-atm/