The Secret Service examined the four one hundred dollar bills that the bank teller identified as counterfeit and declared them to be authentic American currency. Several days later, the money was credited back to Debby’s account.
So the suspicion of fakery resulted in a seven day loss of $400.
Better than a permanent loss of $400!
Today we bought a house! Debby and I have been trying to sell the house we are in and buy a house we love. After much back and forth involving various amounts of miscommunication, the buyer we thought we had for our house backed out.
We love the house we found and Debby figured out how to buy it even without selling this one, but financing changes were required. So there was plenty of negotiations with the bank and it was all worked out. Time was short. The realtor was concerned that the sellers might not accept another delay of the closing.
The problem is that the money has to be there. And it turns out that the bank would hold even a cashier’s check for a couple of days. There was no alternative but to get cash. Debby went to the bank and withdrew the cash.* They put it in an envelope for her. She drove to Fort Wayne and presented the cash to the bank.
The teller examined each bill.
Debby now has a receipt for the $400 that the bank has determined may be counterfeit and is delivering to the Secret Service.
Fortunately, the dollar amount Debby was given was approximate and the $400 was not necessary to close.
Unfortunately, we just might be out $400.
Something wrong with that picture!
The bank informed Debby that there have been other cases of counterfeit hundreds in Fort Wayne recently. In examining the bills, the teller was focused on the date. I suspect that the bank has been informed to be on the lookout for bills of a certain date and that some of Debby’s bills matched that criteria. It is possible that the Secret Service will authenticate the money. At least, we hope so!
If it turns out that those bills are counterfeit, then that means that one cannot be sure that the cash a bank gives out is in fact legal currency.
*This was not tens of thousands of dollars. Just several hundred to cover the last bit needed.