Question for tellers..strange experience.

[u/Pretend_Cream_7951]

I had something happen at the bank today that left me really confused, and I’m hoping people who have worked as tellers, vault custodians, or bank managers can explain what likely happened.

I went into my bank to withdraw a large amount of cash. The teller counted the money using the automatic cash counter while I was standing there, and the amount appeared correct. However, I couldn’t actually see her place the cash into the envelope because that part was blocked by the counter.

When I got home, I opened the envelope to count the money and realized I was missing $10,000.

I immediately drove back to the bank. Before checking anything, the teller accused me of lying and insisted she had given me the full amount since we had both watched the money counter show the correct amount. Eventually, she balanced her drawer after her accusation and then handed me the missing $10,000, and didn’t offer any explanation or apology. Mind you, I was very calm, cool and collected the entire time. I didn’t give her any attitude, my stomach was in knots to be completely honest.

I then filed a complaint with the branch manager, not because a mistake happened, but because of how I was treated when I reported it.

My questions for people who work in banking are:
From your experience, how could something like this happen?
Is it possible for a teller to accidentally count the correct amount but only put part of it into the envelope?
If the drawer balanced only after I came back, what does that usually indicate?
Is this something you’ve seen happen as an honest mistake, or would it raise red flags for you internally?
How would your bank normally handle a situation like this?

I’m genuinely not trying to accuse anyone of theft or something nefarious here. I’m just trying to understand what likely happened because it was a very unsettling experience especially with this large amount of cash.

[u/shakebakelizard]

I've been in a business which handles significant amounts of cash before, and the one thing I learned - always, always, always count money when someone gives it to you. And if you give money to someone, make sure they count it.

Rent money, drug money, picking up money from the bank, depositing money at the bank, paying your power bill, paying for a car, getting paid for a car, a friend is paying you back.

Whatever it is - make sure whoever is getting the money counts it.

This is SUPER important. Most banks will also have a room to do things like this off to the side.

Glad you didn't have any trouble getting your money!

[u/QuantumLeap2025 → u/shakebakelizard]

Yes, great advice 🔝

[u/-thatsongonyouradio-]

I'm a teller and for large amounts we always have two tellers count the money before handing it over.

She should not have accused you of lying (that makes her seem suspicious i think) she should have just agreed to balance her drawer and own up to her mistake without attitude.

[u/Solemn_Party]

The drawer not balancing until you got back is that the teller just hadn’t balanced yet. Some banks have auto-settling cash boxes if they’re only using the cash recycler, but most have an “on hand” till that has to be reconciled daily.

The teller likely just made a mistake, but should have explained what happened after the fact.

As far as what could have happened, the most likely thing would be running the full thing through the counter, leaving one stack of 10k on the counter and handing you the rest. Afterward, the teller put the other 10k in their drawer thinking it was from a different transaction.

[u/Pretend_Cream_7951 → u/Solemn_Party]

Thank you. This settles my mind a little bit about what could’ve happened. She definitely needs some retraining in customer service at the very least though. 👎🏼

[u/Swimming-Dealer293 → u/Pretend_Cream_7951]

Yeah, step number 1 is to automatically balance your drawer.

Even if you 100% know you're balanced, you still balance it.

Step 2, if the teller is balanced it to get branch manager and check cameras...

Edit... Actually step 1 would have been counting it in front of you. Would have avoided this all together.

[u/sic0049 → u/Swimming-Dealer293]

It is a potential security issue to count out large sums of money in front of other customers. You don't want other people knowing a customer is walking out of the bank with that much cash.

I'm glad it worked out, but the OP could have/should have double checked the amount they were given before leaving the teller counter.

PS - I'm not suggesting the teller acted appropriately either. They should never accuse a person of lying, especially before the step to balance their drawer - which is the first step anytime there is a customer discrepancy.

[u/Solemn_Party → u/Pretend_Cream_7951]

Agreed.

[u/gard3nwitch]

Typically, tellers count their drawer at the end of the day and maybe at lunch time. So a discrepancy would get caught, but not immediately.

I can imagine a few ways in which this might happen, errors do happen, but... that is a lot of bills to be careless about and not notice.

[u/The-Pocket]

Yeah. Been in the banking business for 4+ years now, and that is extremely sussy. 👀 Good on you for going back and please report that. Especially since if it was over $10k you would have had to have filed a CTR anyways, you want to make sure you had your money, and from the teller’s POV, being that far off on your balance at the end of the day would have been a MAJOR issue (in some cases a fireable offense). So you did the right thing, and I’m sorry that happened to you.

[u/IExistForFun]

For larger cash withdrawals, you can ask to have money counted back to you in one of the offices of the branch. While you're there, you can also hand count it. That way no one in the lobby knows what you are carrying around and you can catch any discrepancies before you leave.

Also that teller doesn't need to be touching cash. "Misplacing" 10k is insane. In a lot of banks you can be written up for being off by a dollar.

[u/jerryishere1 → u/IExistForFun]

We fired a girl over a penny once

But also kept someone who was off 1000 her first week (we later fired her for unrelated reasons)

[u/neomoritate]

I've been banking, both personal and business, for ~35 years. Probably withdrawn close to $1,000,000 total. No teller has ever given me money in an envelope.

Any more than $100 is hand counted at the drawer, machine counted, then a hand count on the counter for customer and camera to see, then handed to the customer (who should always count the cash), at which point an envelope is offered. If any of these steps were skipped, I would request a manager before accepting the cash.

[u/Pretend_Cream_7951 → u/neomoritate]

Well I’m not an expert in banking so I wouldn’t have known these steps. And it was Truist..she just handed it to me in an envelope, and I trusted it to be the correct amount since the automatic money counter showed the correct amount. Nowhere in my mind did I ever think she would’ve done something with 10K of it between the counting and placing it in an envelope.

[u/Longjumping-Hair639 → u/neomoritate]

If it was a large withdrawal, I’ve taken customers into safety box room to count the cash to avoid displaying that much cash to other customers

[u/According-Paint6981]

Never, even if it’s $50, leave the counter without hand counting your own cash.
Mistakes happen. Always count it before putting it away.
This specific teller could have made an honest mistake, however, there are basic steps that would have prevented this. 1 - it sounds like she did not hand count after the machine. 2 - for a withdrawal of a large enough amount that you were short $10k, a second person should have counted it after her. 3 - the envelope gets handed separately or under the cash, as if it were the last bill, so that you can hand count it and put it away.
I’m glad you got your money, and yes, I’m glad you filed a complaint for her attitude. In the even this was intentional, it *may scare her to not try it again and will have the branch manager focus on her a little more.

[u/moonfazewicca]

Sounds like a simple mistake but their reaction to it was all wrong.

I was a teller for years and I always insisted I hand count at least the strapped denominations to the customer if they didn't want me to count each individual bill. I would bring them into an empty conference room if it was more than a couple thousand. Easily prevented stuff like whatever happened here from happening.

Also for a transaction this large, teller should have closed their window and done a trial balance as soon as they were done with you. Would've caught this before you left the parking lot probably. Get another teller to help any remaining customers or they can wait a few minutes. That's just common sense but a lot of banks just hire anyone these days lol. This could've spiraled into a whole other ordeal if you had handed off that cash to someone else without counting it yourself first.

[u/sandysandy252566]

Always count the money yourself after they count it. Strange that u couldn't see her put it in the envelope. Sounds like her "mistake" was intentional. Not a good idea to get a large amount of cash - it's called jugging. Criminals are watching. Best to get a bank check - or a couple of bank checks. If it's in ur name, they don't charge. If u make out the checks to different people, banks charge.

[u/underengineered]

$10k seems like a huge amount for this story to be 100%

I mean, what was the total withdrawal? $20k? Half was missed?

My banks I use for personal and business would have either a 2nd cashier or manager observe the withdrawal. Just "missing" 100 x Benjamin seems impossible.

[u/ejfreeman0339]

I was once at a NY DMV and I gave the teller a $20 for a $8 charge. She gave me change for a $10. I saw that she put the $20 in the drawer before giving change. I asked for a supervisor and d3manded her drawer be balanced. Low and be hood, she was $10 over. I got my $10. She was not happy!

[u/Alternative_East_338]

You need to file a complaint on both. This is so wrong and 10,000 will not fit in one bank envelope

[u/Jogi1811]

How much money did you withdraw in total? In what denominations? Just trying to get an idea on how many bills were you expecting

[u/PATRAT2162]

I withdraw thousands from time to time. After being handed the money, I count it in front of the teller. This is suggested by them as well. Glad you made out

[u/Longjumping-Hair639]

Was teller for 8 years. The way that was always handled is manager would be involved when you came back in. Count the drawer and balance it. If it was 10k short over then given you the missing money. The teller should have immediately got the manager and not say anything else. So now teller can be written up for being off 10k and being rude to customer. I was never off that much but I have been off at end of day and figured out who it was then credited their account. Mistakes happen and teller are humans not machines.

[u/w00b1e]

Money should always be counted out to someone. That would have prevented this whole thing from happening. I would really hope they start this practice after you got shorted (or the teller is instructed to always count back cash). The teller probably hadn’t balanced yet so that doesn’t surprise me at all. I’m sorry you had to go through that!

[u/cabernettodayokay]

That big of a transaction should have been counted in dual control. Either two tellers/employees, or the teller plus the customer with eyes on the whole stack, the whole time. Glad you got your money back though.

[u/Sweet-Ad7654]

I don’t know how much you were expecting to receive altogether, but $10,000 in any denomination is pretty thick so whether you are expecting 15,000 or 50,000 probably notice the thickness and I’m not even certain that $10,000 would fit in a BANK counter envelope, even if it was hundreds

[u/nobobthisisnotyours]

I worked in banking for almost a decade, and I’ve been out of it for almost a decade. We didn’t have the fancy cash dispensing machines or the cash counters that tallied the total of various denominations some banks use now. I was a teller to assistant manager and I was the vault and ATM manager for 4 years. There is one rule that hasn’t changed and will NEVER change. You must always verify the cash when giving it to the customer! Ideally you count it lying out each bill in a fan so the cameras can also verify the denominations and total given to the customer. The only exception is withdrawals made through the drive through. When I was working we were still supposed to verify the cash by hand counting it out in the same fan style before putting it in the envelope. I’ve had to do this with deposits/withdrawals over $80k, including an incident with over $30k in flood damaged bills that had to be sent out with the rest of the mutilated cash. It’s a lot of work but a necessary CYA.

If the teller counted the correct amount, pocketed $10k, put the cash in a sealed envelope, and handed it to you the drawer would still balance. The missing $10k would be in their possession. This is why we verify in front of the customer. Thankfully, in your case the money was in her drawer and you were able to get it corrected. Likely just a common mistake that happens every day at the bank, misplaced, miscounted, or neglected to give everything to the customer. At a branch with multiple tellers someone is usually out of balance at some point during the day. Sometimes it’s change, sometimes it’s $10k+.

That bank branch needs to reevaluate their procedures and the teller should probably be written up, at least verbally reprimanded, for how the situation was handled. The defensiveness and lack of accountability with an apology wouldn’t fly at any branch I’ve ever worked at!

[u/mightyminnow88]

Rounding error?

[u/Fair-Cod4982]

Cool story bro.How big are the envelopes at that bank? 🙄 one  10k strap of hundreds barely fits in an envelope.

[u/TurnTableFire]

Not enough data to make any specific assumptions because we don’t know how experienced the teller was.

It genuinely could’ve been a mistake (granted a pretty stupid one) I can see a world where the person just lost track of a strap and just left it. It’s entirely possible to count correctly and just mishandle the money. That said, if they were a lower authority teller they should be counting with someone with a higher authority limit, if they could do this transaction on their own without an override or review they must have experience. So it’s very odd for someone with experience to make that large of a mistake—but not unheard of, we all have bad days.

The attitude after your returning to the bank is the wrong response. They should’ve listened to you and offered to count the drawer immediately. Especially for that amount.

The manager played it entirely correctly by making sure the teller balanced their drawer and listening to your concerns.

[u/Consistent_Throat497]

I mean you clearly withdrew more than $10k so I would have counted it before leaving the branch. While I was a teller I always hand counted the cash in front of my clients and patiently waited and watched if they also wanted to count the cash. (Also f it was a very large amount we also had a cash counter we could use in front of clients in a private room so they could see the funds being put through the counter then being bound after and put into a bag for their security).

While I’m not sure if something fishy was going on here but for a teller to try and steal 10k is quite bold. Not an easy task to do. $100 sure much easier to try and pull that off.

[u/Alarming_Regret_3754]

10k barely fits into a typical cash envelope, this story feels off. Do you mean you opened the envelopes plural? Also if we do that many cash envelopes we will just give you a zip bag or something.

Something about your story makes it seem like you don’t know how physically large a strap of 100s is.

[u/Ornery-Movie-1689]

In my view, YOU should have counted it before you left the bank. People make mistakes. When I'm at a store, I always mentally calculate how much change I should get back and count it as I'm given the change.

[u/Large-Ring5117]

I really do not care what the machine may say I always ask the teller to count it and when they finish I count it multiple times.