Just days after news broke of Black Panther director Ryan Coogler’s experience ending up in handcuffs for attempting to make a withdrawal from his own bank account, another Black man shared his story of a bank calling police on him. Unlike Coogler, Almond Brewer wasn't accused at a Bank of America in the affluent Atlanta neighborhood of Buckhead, and he wasn’t trying to withdraw $12,000.
Brewer was trying to deposit a $3,200 check at the Pinal County Federal Credit Union in Apache Junction, Arizona, last October, NBC affiliate 12 News reported on Friday.
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Brewer told 12 News he was using a check he received from a woman he sold a boat to on Facebook Marketplace. He said his own bank recommended he deposit the check using the woman's bank to more quickly access the funds, but when Brewer communicated that information to a teller at Pinal County Federal Credit Union he said she "kind of looked surprised." A bank representative told 12 News a manager called 911 when a third-party verification system rendered an inconclusive result on the check. The credit union was able to verify the check with the woman who wrote it, but police who arrived at the credit union didn't seem to learn that until about 10 minutes into the encounter with Brewer, 12 News reported.
“It was just, 'Oh, you know, Black guy, locs in his hair, tattoos, came on a Harley, you know, let's assume the worst,'” Brewer said to the TV station.
The credit union told 12 News the check Brewer was trying to deposit had red flags, including an outdated logo and an account and routing number that didn't match their customer’s. Amy Marshall, the president and CEO of the Pinal County Federal Credit Union, said in a statement to 12 News that the employee was acting according to company policy by running the check through its verification database due to the red flags and involving a manager when the result was inconclusive.
"The manager did reach out to our Risk Management Officer for further direction but was unable to reach them," Marshall said. "If the Manager believes the negotiable instrument may be fraudulent it is within their discretion to involve local authorities in the interest of protecting our members from a financial loss.”
Marshall added in the statement:
"In this case, the call to authorities was based solely on the negotiable instrument presented. At no time did the staff feel threatened or feel Mr. Brewer was trying to rob the credit union. As authorities were en route the manager was able to get ahold of the member to obtain verbal verification she had written the check."
The bank still wasn’t able to cash the check. "Recently we have seen an uptick in fraudulent activity and this situation echoed other scenarios throughout our other branch locations," Marshall said in the statement. "Our ultimate responsibility is to ensure our members accounts are safe and secure."
Brewer said he hasn’t been inside a bank since the incident. “Why embarrass somebody like that?” he asked in his 12 News interview. “Why, you know, make them feel less than a man?”