Chicago Man Gets Stolen Money Back After 6-Month Fight With Bank

CHICAGO (CBS Chicago) -- A Chicago man had a miserable experience with identity theft that lasted months.

It started with a mistake he made and then spiraled into a months-long mess until CBS Chicago stepped in and helped him get back his missing $15,000.

Marvellous Taylor left his wallet at the self-checkout at a south suburban Chicago grocery store. He canceled all his bank cards, but a crook still got their hands on his driver's license, which is the holy grail for identity theft.

"A couple days later, I noticed transactions coming out from my bank," Taylor said.

Turns out, the crook went into Fifth-Third bank branches and did an old-fashioned withdrawal with Taylor's driver's license.

"The same guy took the money out over and over and over," said Taylor. "He went in like five, six different times."

Taylor shared his bank statements identifying bogus withdrawals totaling nearly $15,000. He filed a police report. The bank then let him see videos of the transactions and Taylor told CBS Chicago he looks nothing like the thief.

"You could tell us apart from down the street without knowing us," Taylor said.

He disputed the transactions with Fifth-Third and was was stunned to learn of the bank's decision: The bank researchers found the transactions were valid.

"They just deny it and throw it under the rug and not handling it very well at all," said Taylor.

After Taylor contacted CBS Chicago, Fifth-Third took another look at the case.

Taylor returned to a Fifth-Third branch with his new ID, so bank officials could confirm he indeed was not the person captured on their cameras withdrawing all that money.

A few days later, Taylor's money was returned.

Fifth-Third apologized to Taylor for the length of the investigation. It took six months for Taylor to get his money back.

They acknowledge he is not the man seen on camera withdrawing all that money. They also encourage anyone to report suspicious activity as soon as possible and make sure the bank knows your ID was stolen as well.