Edition: U.S. / Global

Bank Credits $95,093 Junk-Mail Check to Customer's Account

Published: August 20, 1995

Like nearly every American, Patrick Combs received a junk mail "nonnegotiable" check about three months ago offering gifts and prizes.

Unlike every other American, Mr. Combs went to the bank and deposited the $95,093.35 "check" in the automatic teller machine.

"I swore that the bank would reject the check," Mr. Combs said on Wednesday.

But the money was transferred and Mr. Combs put it in a cashier's check that was locked away in a safe deposit box, where it remains. The bank did not discover its mistake until about a month later, and now First Interstate Bancorp wants the cash back.

A spokeswoman for First Interstate, Shirley Hosoi, declined to comment, citing policies on customer confidentiality.

The company that issued the check, Association of Certified Liquidators, said no one had ever before tried to cash a promotional check.

"We're going to have to check into this," said the association's president, Mitch Klass.

It all began in May, Mr. Combs said, when he decided on a whim to see if a bank would accept the "nonnegotiable" check. On May 22 the bank credited his account $95,093.35.

Mr. Combs said he waited three weeks, but the bank did not mention the error.

"I was having fun with it," he said. "I would call my bank for my bank account balance and hear it jingle, 'over $100,000.' "

So he withdrew the money and put it in a cashier's check, which he then stored in the bank's safe deposit box.

First Interstate has said it noticed the error on June 5, but Mr. Combs said he was not notified until June 22. In the meantime, the bank froze his account and the teller machine kept his bank card.

A bank security officer called Mr. Combs and demanded the money back. But when Mr. Combs said he was on vacation and could not get to the safe deposit box, the security officer demanded permission to drill the box open.

Mr. Combs said he was initially prepared to return the money, but the bank's attitude changed his mind.

"The security officer was really, really mean," he said. "This was the point I wished they had called and been nice. I had been a customer for 12 years."

Mr. Combs said he asked for a letter from the bank before relinquishing the safe deposit box.

But he said the security officer told him: "You're not getting a letter from the bank. What you're getting is policemen at your door. What you committed was fraud."

Mr. Combs said he researched the law on how banks handle checks and believed he had a legal right to the money.

He said he had not heard from the bank since July 6 and had stopped trying to guess what might happen next.

"This thing is so wacky," he said.

The issue has sparked debate in Mr. Combs's exchanges on the Internet, where opinions are split over whether the 29-year-old author should spend the dough.

"One guy says, 'Keep it dude,' " he said. " 'Buy your mom a Lexus.' Another says, 'You have a legal right to it but no ethical right to it.' "

Mr. Combs added: "The reason people want me to keep this money is because they've been bullied around by banks. People hate the way when you're down, the bank kicks you with a charge."

He admitted that early on, he joked with friends about taking a $95,000 vacation. But these days, he said he had become a bit more philosophical.

"I have had two or three months to learn what money means to me," he said. "I think $95,000 is minuscule."