Error leads to innocent man being sought as bank theft suspect

An error at a bank not only took $2,000 out of the wrong account but led to an innocent man’s photo being shared by police and, subsequently, The Modesto Bee.

On Wednesday, the Ceres Police Department posted a photograph on its Facebook page of a man withdrawing money at the Bank of America at 2617 Mitchell Road. He was identified as suspected of having taken $2,000 from a Washington state resident’s account, without permission.

The Washington resident initially made the report with the Edmonds Police Department there. Because the withdrawal was made in Ceres, the report was forwarded to the Ceres Police Department investigations unit. The victim looked at the surveillance photos of the man who withdrew the money but did not recognize him, Ceres police said.

As it turned out, there was no reason he or she should have recognized him.

“After further investigation, it was discovered a clerical error had occurred during the transaction he was making,” Ceres police spokesman Sgt. Greg Yotsuya wrote on Facebook on Friday afternoon. “Numbers in his account were transposed (by a bank employee) and the money was taken out of the victim’s account in error. The elderly male did nothing wrong. The case has been closed.”

A Bank of America manager in Ceres referred questions to a corporate spokeswoman.

“This was human error and the account has been corrected,” Bank of America spokeswoman Colleen Hagerty said via email Friday afternoon. “We immediately contacted the customer to explain the situation and to apologize.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2017 at 1:16 PM with the headline "Error leads to innocent man being sought as bank theft suspect."