An Arizona bank called the police on 32-year-old Almond Brewer as he tried to deposit a check from his recent boat sale.
12 News reported that Brewer attempted the $3,200 deposit at the Pinal County Federal Credit Union in Apache Junction before cops showed up and confronted him. The incident went down in October 2021.
According to the news outlet, a police report indicated that the young man told a teller he received a check after selling his speedboat to a woman on Facebook Marketplace. He also mentioned that his bank told him to take it to her bank to get access to the money faster. However, the teller seemed surprised by what he said.
“She asked, ‘What was the check for?'” he told reporters.
“I said, “It was for one of my assets. I buy and sell boats, and I sold them off, [and] she [looked kind of] surprised.”
The unidentified bank manager then, reportedly, ran Brewer’s check through a third-party verifier. It came up as “inconclusive,” hence, she assumed it was fraudulent and called the authorities on him. She didn’t even tell the cops about her results, so they weren’t aware of it until 10 minutes after they surrounded Brewer.
Body camera footage showed him being questioned by five Apache Junction Police officers outside the bank that day.
“How can it be fraud when [the customer] wrote it, signed it, and she’s a member of this bank?” he asked them.
The credit union said the manager contacted Brewer’s customer as officers headed to her branch. They claimed the check she issued had “red flags” such as their old logo, as well as account and routing numbers that allegedly didn’t match their member’s information.
However, he said that he believed he was racially profiled.
“It was just, ‘oh, you know, Black guy locks in his hair, tattoos came on a Harley, you know, let’s assume the worst,'” he said. “Why embarrass somebody like that? Why, you know, make them feel less than a man?”
He continued, saying that he hadn’t been to another bank since the unfortunate situation.
“I haven’t been inside a bank since.”
On Jan. 14, the President/CEO of the Pinal County Federal Credit Union, Amy Marshall, released a statement apologizing to him for the “confusion.”
She added that no one at the bank thought he was trying to rob the institution.
“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.”
However, bank officials still said that, even with their member’s verification of authenticity, they would not proceed with the young man’s transaction request. They attributed this to the type of check he presented and the fact that he wasn’t a member of their bank.
The credit union also claimed that they had seen an “uptick” in fraudulent activities, and that Brewer’s situation “echoed other scenarios throughout our other branch locations.”
He was reportedly a former college and professional basketball player and founder of L.E.A.G.U.E. B, a clothing line inspired by his days playing the sport.
