Via the
PoliTech mailing list;
Here is the story of one person's banking experience. The troubling question that the teller was asking was WHY was this money being withdrawn. While I believe that sums over 10 thousand USD are required to be reported (the amount in this case was 1,8 thousand USD), IMO this question of the banking customer is unusual.
The money quote in the article was
I later relayed this story to my adviser here at CMU (this happened at PNC). She said I should have said something like "it's for my girlfriend to get an abortion." While it would have been interesting to see the teller's response, this brings up a very serious point: bank tellers are now in the same position as pharmacists in that they can deny you service because of differing ideologies. The difference though, is that the bank scenario is a lot more serious as they are sitting on your money (whereas in many cases you can go to a different pharmacy).
Update: Fixed the amount mentioned to the correct 1800 USD. Sorry about that.