The leader of an education advocacy group in Connecticut is shocked by a recent transaction at her local TD Bank and suspects racism was at play, reports the Huffington Post.
Gwen Samuel, who is Black, said a teller at a branch in Southington, Connecticut, refused to complete a withdrawal for her a few weeks ago, and she was forced to withdraw the money at another branch.
Samuel, CEO and founder of the group Connecticut Parents Union, which advocates for equal educational opportunities for children in Connecticut, said she went to the bank to withdraw just over $1,000 to pay a vendor, according to Fox 61.
Since Samuel has been a TD Bank customer for 16 years, she figured it would be a simple transaction.
“I go inside, I had my TD Bank card and my license,” Samuel told Fox 61. “They were cordial. I’m not even gonna say they were rude.”
However, the teller spent a lot of time going through Samuel’s account before coming back.
“She hands me my license and she says, ‘I don’t feel comfortable giving you the money,’” Samuel told the station. “So, I got confused, so I said, ‘You don’t feel comfortable giving me the money,’” she said. “She said, ‘Well you just deposited the check yesterday.’”
Samuel then pointed out to the teller that she had already verified the check had cleared.
She was shocked by the teller’s response.
“And she said, ‘Oh yeah, it cleared. The money is available. I just don’t feel comfortable giving it to you,’” Samuel said, adding that the teller never explained why she felt that way.
“I was so hurt and I didn’t want to start crying,” she told WFSB TV.
Since there was no policy preventing her from withdrawing the money in her account, Samuel checked the ATM outside of the bank and had no problem taking money out of the account.
She then went to another branch and withdrew what she needed to pay the vendor with the help of the employees there.
“I just had to make sure I am not overreacting because we’re such a racial tense time right now, so I just wanted to give the benefit of the doubt, but that doubt went away when I got the money from the ATM and Bristol,” Samuel told NBC Connecticut.
She organized a protest on Monday at the bank to make sure its policies treat everyone fairly in the future.
