ST CHARLES, Mo. — Your local bank: you trust them with your money and your financial well being.
But that friendly bank teller behind the glass may be hiding a dark secret.
Our I-Team uncovered why two local bank tellers are facing felony charges, and why their victims say you should think twice about where you keep your money.
Don't let his appearance fool you.
Earl Davis, 82, has plenty of wit and personality to keep up with just about anyone. Including his son, Grant.
"He's a great person. He's elderly, he has some dementia. He had an injury that caused him to have a brain injury," said Grant.
Grant said those issues made his father the perfect target for someone we all usually trust: the bank teller.
"He trusted his money to Regions Bank. Over the course of a couple of years, they were stealing money from him," said Grant.
That teller, 35-year-old Brady O'Connell of St Charles, is now facing a felony theft charge. She worked at the now-closed Regions Bank on the 400 block of First Capitol Drive in St. Charles.
She's accused of stealing more $100,000 by assuming Earl's identity and withdrawing money from his account, then transferring that cash into another account.
"According to the confession, he was targeted because he was elderly, because he was old and they knew he wouldn't check his account as well as someone who was young," said Grant.
Grant has also filed a civil lawsuit against Regions Bank to get more answers about the scope of the theft
"So far, they haven't dug deep to see how many employees were involved, how many customers were involved. We don't want this to happen to another family. There's no reason to believe this just happened to one person," said Grant.
And he's right about that.
The I-Team found another Regions teller in Ellisville was accused of the same thing.
Just last month, Michelle Green of Ballwin pleaded not guilty to stealing more than $50,000 from an unsuspecting Regions customer she had befriended at the bank.
"It really looks more like a pattern. A pattern of tellers who are not properly trained or supervised," said Grant. "It also makes you fearful for the whole community, because how many more people did this happen to? They want to sweep it under the rug, they don't want people to know."
A spokesperson for Regions Bank couldn't comment specifically on the case, but they told us:
"We have no tolerance for fraud and we have people and procedures in place to identify, investigate and report all financial crimes. When we become aware of potential account fraud, either through our own internal controls or reports from our customers, we conduct our own investigation in cooperation with law enforcement. In cases where fraud or theft is confirmed, we reimburse any funds improperly removed from the customer’s account and terminate the employment of the associate responsible. We cannot comment on the specifics of cases currently in litigation."