On Monday, October 6, 2008, I went to the downtown branch of Wells Fargo Bank in Denver to withdraw $10, 000 from my savings account. The teller told me he could not give me the money because the bank did not have the funds. I told the teller I did not understand. He asked the teller in the next booth, showing her my withdrawal slip, and she shook her her head no. I asked to speak to a manager. The teller called a manager over, and the manager explained to me that the bank did not have such sums of money on hand, and that I would have to call in advance for them to order the money to honor my withdrawal. This is a large bank in downtown Denver, full of customers. Yet they did not have enough money on hand to fill a $10, 000 withdrawal request.

When I got home, I called Wells Fargo Customer Service, and the representative said it sounded very odd that the bank would not have that kind of money on hand. She said, "it blows my mind" that they would tell you such a thing. She put me on hold. When she came back on the line, her tone had changed, and she said the bank policy was that if I wanted to withdraw such a sum of money, I would have to call in advance to order it, that contrary to the movies, banks do not have large sums of money laying around in their vaults. I commented that this was the largest branch in downtown Denver, and I was a bit surprised that $10, 000 would exceed their cash supply. I asked, then, if ten people came in to the bank, each one wanting just $1, 000, then would they start turning customers away. "Of course not, " she said. But if I wanted to withdraw the money from my account, I would have to call ahead and wait a day or two for them to get it in. This makes no sense! I wonder what would happen if I came in and wanted to close my account and take out all of my cash?