Businesswoman blames faulty bank equipment for $4,000 loss

A local businesswoman said she lost thousands of dollars while making a deposit and she blames faulty bank equipment.

Mayola Romero manages her family’s grocery store, La Vaca Chonda. She said last month, she deposited four packets of cash through the drive-thru depository at the downtown Colorado Springs Chase Bank. She went home not realizing she only received three confirmation receipts.

“I have to accept part of my irresponsibility at not checking the receipts at that moment,” she said in an interview in Spanish. “But I am sure that I left the money there. I’m 100 percent sure.”

Romero confronted bank employees the day after she made her deposit. They took apart the money machine and found a packet of money that had been stuck. But it wasn’t the $4,000 packet Romero was seeking. It was one of her earlier deposits for less than $700.

“They were surprised and said they had never seen that before,” she said.

Mary Jane Rogers, a Chase spokesperson confirmed employees took apart the machine that day. She said they took it apart a second time and found nothing.

“We have been working with our customer, while we also take extra steps to ensure our equipment is working properly,” she said in a statement.

As for Romero’s $4,000, the bank won’t refund it without proof she deposited it.

Romero said the bank should take at least partial responsibility because it’s been proven that money can get stuck in the depository. She said if nothing else, she hopes others learn from her story.

“I at least want to alert all the people that have businesses, because we all suffer to have and maintain our businesses,” she said. “At least for them to be attentive and to realize what’s going on when we’re depositing that money.”