Veronica Cruz works late Friday nights at a Des Moines bar and restaurant, so it was 3:30 a.m. by the time she got home and got to work on the Iowa Lottery scratch tickets she purchased at a Casey's after her shift on March 4.
The first four were losers, but the last, a $20 “Super 20s” ticket, hit for a $100,000 prize.
“I kind of thought it was a joke, so I took out my phone and scanned the ticket,” said the Des Moines mother of six. “It said, 'Congrats you’re a winner and you need to redeem this.' I woke up all my kids, and celebrated with them. It was a real adrenaline rush.”
But that rush has since turned into a nightmare, Cruz says.
Ten days since she won and eight days since she tried to deposit her winnings, Cruz said, her Chase Bank branch at 6150 S.E.14th St. has refused to cash the Iowa Lottery check issued by Wells Fargo bank. Not only that, she said, but Chase canceled her debit card, froze her checking account and sent her an email on March 8 saying that “to protect against potential fraud, we restricted your account and may close it soon.”
The branch did that even though the Iowa Lottery itself published news of her winning on Facebook, Twitter and its website. It in turn was published by other news sites across the U.S.
An employee at the Chase branch on Monday referred Watchdog to the bank's corporate media relations, which did not respond to a message seeking an explanation.
"It's unfortunate, because we had so much fun celebrating with her and her family," Neubauer said. "We always want our players to have fun when they win the lottery."
Neubauer wrote that staffers spoke with Cruz multiple times after she won her prize and confirmed with the lottery's bank that it made payment, and then a staffer confirmed the prize check with Cruz's bank, as it often does, so the check could be verified.
"When our prize-validations staffers last spoke with Veronica, we believed we had answered all of her questions and had provided her financial institution with the information it needed. If Veronica or her bank have more questions, we will be glad to speak with them. However, we would not have standing to insert ourselves into the relationship she has with her bank," Neubauer wrote.
Cruz, 33, said Iowa Lottery employees have been great to work with and have tried to help her, but Chase employees told her last week the check was put in a queue for checks not to be deposited.
Cruz said the bank has since said it released the hold on her account, but she won’t hear until Wednesday what the bank plans to do next about the prize check.
“Banking with Chase Bank has been a nightmare,” she said. “They have been no help and have been treating me as if I was a criminal. ... Every time I have called to try to get someone to override the hold on my account, they said they can’t help me out."
If the bank refuses to cash the check, Cruz said, she will have to go back to the Iowa Lottery, get it to cancel the previous check and issue another, then set up an account at another bank and wait again until the check clears.
With 24% federal withholding and 5% state withholding, Cruz's actual prize check from the Iowa Lottery was a net amount of $71,000.
The first four were losers, but the last, a $20 “Super 20s” ticket, hit for a $100,000 prize.
“I kind of thought it was a joke, so I took out my phone and scanned the ticket,” said the Des Moines mother of six. “It said, 'Congrats you’re a winner and you need to redeem this.' I woke up all my kids, and celebrated with them. It was a real adrenaline rush.”
But that rush has since turned into a nightmare, Cruz says.
Ten days since she won and eight days since she tried to deposit her winnings, Cruz said, her Chase Bank branch at 6150 S.E.14th St. has refused to cash the Iowa Lottery check issued by Wells Fargo bank. Not only that, she said, but Chase canceled her debit card, froze her checking account and sent her an email on March 8 saying that “to protect against potential fraud, we restricted your account and may close it soon.”
The branch did that even though the Iowa Lottery itself published news of her winning on Facebook, Twitter and its website. It in turn was published by other news sites across the U.S.
An employee at the Chase branch on Monday referred Watchdog to the bank's corporate media relations, which did not respond to a message seeking an explanation.
Iowa lottery official: Check confirmed to bank
Mary Neubauer, a spokesperson for the Iowa Lottery, said in an email that a hold on a large check is standard until the check can be verified, but the lottery has never seen a situation like Cruz's."It's unfortunate, because we had so much fun celebrating with her and her family," Neubauer said. "We always want our players to have fun when they win the lottery."
Neubauer wrote that staffers spoke with Cruz multiple times after she won her prize and confirmed with the lottery's bank that it made payment, and then a staffer confirmed the prize check with Cruz's bank, as it often does, so the check could be verified.
"When our prize-validations staffers last spoke with Veronica, we believed we had answered all of her questions and had provided her financial institution with the information it needed. If Veronica or her bank have more questions, we will be glad to speak with them. However, we would not have standing to insert ourselves into the relationship she has with her bank," Neubauer wrote.
Cruz, 33, said Iowa Lottery employees have been great to work with and have tried to help her, but Chase employees told her last week the check was put in a queue for checks not to be deposited.
Cruz said the bank has since said it released the hold on her account, but she won’t hear until Wednesday what the bank plans to do next about the prize check.
Winner says she feels like she's being profiled
She said she can’t help but feel the bank’s reluctance to cash the check has something to do with her being a Latina woman, and she feels profiled by the bank. Iowa Lottery employees, she said, told her other people have won bigger jackpots and had checks cashed in fewer days.“Banking with Chase Bank has been a nightmare,” she said. “They have been no help and have been treating me as if I was a criminal. ... Every time I have called to try to get someone to override the hold on my account, they said they can’t help me out."
If the bank refuses to cash the check, Cruz said, she will have to go back to the Iowa Lottery, get it to cancel the previous check and issue another, then set up an account at another bank and wait again until the check clears.
With 24% federal withholding and 5% state withholding, Cruz's actual prize check from the Iowa Lottery was a net amount of $71,000.
