Newsweek: Bank Calls Cops on Black Man Attempting to Deposit Racial Discrimination Settlement Check From Employer

[China]

BANK CALLS COPS ON BLACK MAN ATTEMPTING TO DEPOSIT RACIAL DISCRIMINATION SETTLEMENT CHECK FROM EMPLOYER

 

 African-American man is suing a bank after staff called the police on him when he tried to deposit a check he received after settling a lawsuit with his former employer for racial discrimination.

Sauntore Thomas, 44, settled the lawsuit with his former employer for an undisclosed amount earlier this month and received a check on Tuesday, according to the complaint obtained by Newsweek.

 

He went to cash it at a TCF Bank on Middlebelt Road Livonia, Michigan, at around 3 p.m. that same day to deposit the check, open a savings account and draw out some cash.

 

But the assistant branch manager "immediately appeared suspicious" of Thomas and told him the check would need to be verified, the complaint alleged.

 

The manager told him the bank's verification system was not working, so she would need to "call in the checks" to verify them, the complaint said. Instead, she called police to the scene and reported that Thomas was attempting to deposit fraudulent checks.

 

"How did you get this money?" she asked Thomas before she walked away from the counter, according to the complaint. He explained that it was from the settlement of a lawsuit.

 

According to the Detroit Free Press, Thomas settled the lawsuit with his former employer, Enterprise Leasing Company of Detroit, confidentially, so could not reveal the sum he received.

 

Thomas told the newspaper that he was humiliated after four police officers were called to the bank when all he was doing was trying to deposit a check at a bank where he has had an account for almost two years.

 

He added that he was questioned by two officers while two others stood outside. "I didn't deserve treatment like that when I knew that the check was not fraudulent," Thomas told the Free Press.

 

"I'm a United States veteran. I have an honorable discharge from the Air Force. They discriminated against me because I'm black. None of this would have happened if I were white."

 

According to the lawsuit, Thomas provided officers with a business card for his attorney Deborah Gordon, who confirmed to them the details of the lawsuit and that her office had received the settlement check that day.

 

Gordon also spoke to the branch manager and told her that the check was to settle a lawsuit for racial discrimination against Thomas.

 

But the bank still refused to deposit the checks and filed a police report against Thomas for check fraud, the lawsuit said.

 

Gordon told Newsweek that the only thing Thomas was guilty of was "banking while black."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[PokerPacker]

I eagerly await news of Thomas receiving another check and taking it to another bank.

[Larry]

he already knows a lawyer.  

[Kurd Cudins]

So, his lawyer verified the source of funds to both the bank and police but a police report was still filed? I hate stupid people so much.

[LD0506]

2 hours ago, Kurd Cudins said:

So, his lawyer verified the source of funds to both the bank and police but a police report was still filed? I hate stupid people so much.

 

But the silver lining there is that they always out themselves, they never think thru a response, they just go with their reflexive preprogrammed horse****. Thomas played it exactly right, keep cool and call the lawyer, think about what you'll spend the money on from the next settlement.

[Mr. Sinister]

This world, man. At the very least, since some people just can't  not be racist dickwads, you'd hope they at minimum process the career/financial implications of such behavior. Costing your business a fat check and people will know who you are going forward. Cant hide

[Destino]

Quote

According to the lawsuit, Thomas provided officers with a business card for his attorney Deborah Gordon, who confirmed to them the details of the lawsuit and that her office had received the settlement check that day.

 

Gordon also spoke to the branch manager and told her that the check was to settle a lawsuit for racial discrimination against Thomas.

 

But the bank still refused to deposit the checks and filed a police report against Thomas for check fraud, the lawsuit said.

That’s from the article.

 

So the branch manager spoke to the guys lawyer and still went ahead and belly flopped right on to this obvious land mine?  How stupid can a person be?  Then again, racists aren’t know for being smart so I guess this fits nicely.  

 

One problem I have with this article is I didn’t see the branch manager here named.  Perhaps I missed it.  

 

Note that police officers chose not arrest this man.  I imagine that, unlike this dreadfully stupid branch manager, they took one look at this situation and saw that it was BS.  They probably also realized that playing along would end badly for them, and chose wisely not to make themselves the scapegoats in this.  

These Canadian cops who were in a similar situation made the other choice and worsened the situation immensely as a result and ended up arresting a grandpa and his granddaughter at their bank:

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/indigenous-girl-grandfather-handcuffed-bank-1.5419519

 

Bankers are just the worst.

[ExoDus84]

You can't fix stupid.

 

Irony aside, the man will get another payday. Rightfully so.

[Larry]

4 hours ago, Destino said:

So the branch manager spoke to the guys lawyer and still went ahead and belly flopped right on to this obvious land mine?  

And the Lawyer told him it was a check from a racial discrimination lawsuit.  
 

[c slag]

He's going to have another payday and the branch manager will be out of a job

[The Sisko]

I’m not sure about branch managers, but pretty much everyone else at bank branches are getting paid peanuts. You get what you pay for I guess.

[Renegade7]

So I've given this sometime, jus to confirm, why disnt the check clear in the first place?  Was that intentional by the people that wrote it?

[Larry]

1 hour ago, Renegade7 said:

So I've given this sometime, jus to confirm, why disnt the check clear in the first place?  Was that intentional by the people that wrote it?

 

I didn't see anything that says the check didn't clear.  (And if it doesn't, the bank's correct response is "Sorry, sir.  The check didn't clear.  We've taken our $40 fee out of your account.  Next customer, please?")  

 

And would you believe, when I read this story, the first thing I thought wasn't to start looking for some way that the customer could be part of a conspiracy to set the bank up?

[PCS]

From the article:  

 

Quote

Thomas ended up withdrawing the balance of his account at TCF Bank and closing it. An hour later, he opened an account at a Chase bank in Detroit and deposited the check there. The check cleared and the money was in his account early the following morning, the complaint said.

 

[PleaseBlitz]

5 hours ago, Renegade7 said:

So I've given this sometime, jus to confirm, why disnt the check clear in the first place?  Was that intentional by the people that wrote it?

 

Nearly all banks have a policy to put a hold on very large checks.  Unfortunately, bank fraud is very common, so this isn't controversial.  If the customer needs the money immediately, there are systems in place to verify checks immediately (which can include calling the other bank on which the check was written).  It appears that, instead of calling the other bank or otherwise attempting to verify the check, the bank employee called the police.  This story doesn't make clear whether the client even objected to the hold, it reads like the bank employee just used it as an excuse to make the phone call.  

[drowland]

I assume it would have been a certified check, not a personal check.  You can still make a fraudulent certified check , but they can hold the funds to make sure if clears before making them available.  Or as was stated above, call the issuing bank to confirm the validity of the check.  All steps to be taken before calling the cops.