A California man went to deposit $33,000 in Bank of America — and never saw the money again.
According to ABC7 Bay News, the California man in question — Brian Leonard — had a certified check for $33,000. The check was drawn from Leonard’s Wells Fargo account, so that he and his wife could get their kitchen remodeled. He drew a certified check in the hopes that it would “clear quickly,” as typically, certified checks clear within 24 hours of deposit.
But the next day, when he checked his account to make sure he had enough money to pay his contractor, he was in for a big surprise — and not in a good way.
“The woman said that there was no record of the transaction. So as far as she was concerned, no transaction happened,” he said to the outlet.
And it got worse. When the California man drove over to the bank’s branch in Oakland, CA, to see what was going on, the branch was closed.
Getting aggravated yet? Don’t worry — so was he, and rightly so.
“When I realized the branch was closed, and the teller that took my $33,000 cashier’s check is nowhere to be found, my heart sank into my stomach… I felt like I just saw the boat leaving the dock and my money’s on the boat,” Leonard said.
Even going to different branches didn’t help the situation, because despite the fact that Leonard had receipts — including a copy of the deposit slip — to prove that he’d made the $33,000 deposit, Bank of America consistently told him, “there’s nothing we can do.”
How did the California man get his money back?
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the California man decided to throw it into fifth gear and throw his foot on the gas. (And good for him.)
Leonard contacted the federal government, Bank of America’s CEO, and the local news station to find out where these folks had put his money.
Within hours of the calls, his money was magically restored to his account. According to the bank, the check took time to clear because it was made payable to “Bank of America” and not to Leonard himself.
