Strange, But True, Bank News

Banker & Tradesman’s readers are well aware of a little problem called robo-signing that this country’s banks have gotten themselves into. Well, Bank of America just took their foreclosure problems to a whole other level.

In case you happened to have avoided the internet in the last week and a half, you didn’t read about how Bank of America tried to foreclose on Florida homeowners that paid cash for their home. That’s right. There was never even a mortgage involved.

After going to court over the matter, a judge ruled that Bank of America had to pay the homeowners’ legal fees. But instead of admitting wrongdoing, the bank simply didn’t pay. The Teller is guessing that this financial institution is abiding by the “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” motto.

The wrongfully accused homeowners, after five months of being ignored by Bank of America, took the next logical step – they took action to foreclose on the bank. Moving trucks rolled up to seize assets, sheriff’s deputies stood guard and the bank’s doors were shuttered.

What happened next? Well, an hour later the bank manager showed up with a check in hand. The Teller can just imagine him saying, “Oops, my bad. It just totally slipped my mind. We’re cool now, right?” Wrong.

A collective cheer surely went out as this news story was told. How many other times has this happened and not made the nightly news?

In another “Can this really be true?” item of banking news, one Pennsylvania woman actually got her hand stuck in a First Commonwealth Bank ATM. Firefighters had to free the woman using special equipment.

How did this woman find one of her hands stuck in the ATM? Well, she stuck it in there, of course, after the machine didn’t dispense her money. The Teller is going to go out on a limb and assume that she didn’t attempt to contact bank officials before taking actions that almost resulted in the premature amputation of her fingers.

Certainly, this is one very amusing version of how someone gets a hand stuck in the cookie jar.