Falsely accused of theft and fired
I’ve been holding onto this for a while for legal reasons but I don’t care about going that route anymore so here goes.
I was a teller at Wells Fargo last year. I had fantastic numbers, was very close with all my coworkers, customers really liked me, and I was a very adaptive employee. I was hired as part-time and promoted to full-time within 2.5 months, something that never happens at that branch. 8 months in while balancing at the end of the day, I was short 4 grand. The other teller I was closing with went through the outage checklist with me to check everything we could. At that point we were already a few minutes over the time we were supposed to leave. Wells Fargo became EXTREMELY strict about being over hours around a year ago so we were forced to rush through the checklist and did not complete it as thoroughly as we should have.
I was told by my coworkers and manager that I shouldn’t worry, people have been short much larger amounts and it’s always been found after reviewing transactions logs and/or cameras. None of us heard anything for two months. One day, I get an email from HR, saying they need to interview me about an incident. I figured it was about this, and after asking my coworker, it definitely was.
In the phone interview, they made me promise I was not recording and was in a completely private area with nobody around. Unsurprisingly, they had me explain the process of what happened two months ago when I was short 4k, and what I think happened to it. I mentioned a transaction I had suspected I did incorrectly but they confirmed I did it the right way and didn’t give anyone free money.
They then told me they had video footage of me on camera counting a strap of 50s, putting my hands under my counter, and the money disappearing. I questioned that, obviously, since I never stole anything. I asked if my drawer was partially opened and the cameras couldn’t see it be placed back inside because my body was covering it, or something similar. They said no, that’s not possible.
Any of you WF employees know a small strap of 50s is $1k and a large strap is $5k. My money counter automatically stops counting when the bills reach the preset amount of 1k or 5k. It was an older machine so you can’t type in a specific number, it has to be 1k or 5k for 50s and will automatically switch to the correct bill type. For example, if I had it set on 20s, it would automatically switch to 50s by detecting the weight of the bill. So it doesn’t make any sense for me to have stolen 4k worth of 50s, it pretty much just wouldn’t be possible based off of what they told me. Oh and the fact that I DID NOT STEAL ANYTHING.
After the interview I was incredibly shaken up. My manager had to take me out of cash and I cried the whole time and had to go home early because my body betrays me when I am upset (very unfortunate curse). I lobby engaged the following two weeks. Utterly ridiculous waste of my time and their money considering I sat at a computer doing nothing most of the time, or if the line was long I got to be berated by angry customers for asking them if they could use the ATM for their transaction (valid of the customers to be upset in my opinion). My coworkers and manager were still so supportive and confident everything would turn out alright. Everyone at that branch knew I’d never do such a thing, or so I thought.
After two weeks, I came to work in the morning and was fired. The manager told me I was being fired for theft. Yes, those were their exact words. For theft. I asked for the supposed video evidence and was told I have to call HR for any questions. Have you ever tried calling HR for something other than benefit information? It is pretty much impossible. WF never tried to get the money back either. If they really thought I stole a felony level sum, don’t you think they’d try to get it back? Especially if they claim to have me on video? It’d be an open and shut case. But they don’t. This whole incident has made me go crazy, there was a point that I considered the possibility of hallucinating an entire day and stealing it while basically unconscious. Obviously that didn’t happen, but that’s how manipulative they were. This is a situation where I think the term “gaslighting” is truly appropriate.
Only one of my coworkers contacted me a couple weeks after the firing and I met up with them to get something I left at the branch back (I was never going back there, that’s for sure). I was told by this person that everyone thinks I did it. Even the person I considered to be my best friend. I know that’s my fault for believing my coworker could actually be my friend but believe me when I tell you that was a deep betrayal.
All of my accounts and my credit card were with them, and they closed it. I applied for accounts at Chase and was denied. My beautiful credit score dropped to 690.
I applied for and was approved for unemployment. On the literal day of the deadline for WF to dispute my unemployment, they filed for a trial. My state government is now sending me collections letters for the thousands of dollars they paid me. I appealed a month ago and haven’t heard anything back (yes I confirmed with the state it was received) so I guess I’ll just hope they don’t garnish my other bank accounts.
I just wanted to share this with anyone who works at Wells Fargo or who is considering employment with them. WELLS FARGO FALSELY ACCUSED ME OF THEFT AND FIRED ME FOR IT.