In the summer of 1955, 7-year-old Westporter Carl Addison Swanson had $12.34 in earnings, from his summer landscaping business.
His father marched him down to Southport Savings — a bank later purchased by People’s — to open a savings account.
Carl had his eye on a new baseball mitt. It did not happen. “Depression parents and all?” he wonders today.
Some 61 years later (and still a People’s Bank client), Swanson learned that an investment firm’s error (someone entered the wrong account number) resulted in the transfer of $28,000 from his checking account, to one of the firm’s clients.
People’s fixed the error relatively quickly (about 2 weeks).
But Swanson’s banking woes were not over.
In mid-August, he put a $10,000 check in his mail box to pay his credit card bill.
It never reached Chase. Instead it ended up in someone’s individual account, in a local TD bank.
The FBI, police, US Postal Service, People’s Bank and The Hartford (homeowner’s) insurance company have all tried to get restitution. It still has not happened.
Swanson — himself an attorney — says, “The banks have gotten too big to fail and to serve their customers. Bigger is not always better.”