Westborough Man To Get $1,400 Back From Bank After Counterfeit Mistake
WESTBOROUGH (CBS) - A Westborough man will finally be able to get his money to pay his bills after a counterfeit controversy turned out to be a big mistake.
Carlos Rivas took his paycheck to Sovereign Bank in Westborough last Saturday and cashed it. He walked away with $1,800.
Rivas says about 45 minutes later he took that money to Citizens Bank where he has an account and tried to deposit it, as he had done for more than a decade.
But this time, when he got to Citizens, they told him 14 of the $100 bills he gave them were counterfeit, so they confiscated them.
Rivas reached out to WBZ-TV Monday for help because, without his money, he couldn't pay his bills.
A Sovereign spokesperson told WBZ Tuesday the situation has been resolved and that "the investigation showed that the currency given to Mr. Rivas was in fact legal tender, not counterfeit."
Westboro police also confirmed the settlement saying the Citizens Bank teller made a mistake and that the cash turned out to be older money that they had not seen in a while.
The cash has been cleared by U.S. Secret Service as authentic and the $1,400 will be returned to Rivas Tuesday.
There has been no comment yet from Citizens Bank.
