Counterfeiters stole $9,136 from Satchel's Pizza in May, but now the restaurant's bank won't compensate.
Satchel Raye, owner of the restaurant, said it's not the counterfeiters that irk him, but the bank.
"We feel the bank did us wrong," he said. "We feel like a victim of Compass Bank more than the check fraud."
The checks were created because the business' mail, including checks, was being stolen out of the mailbox. Raye said the counterfeiters used high-tech equipment to make fake paychecks. Those checks were then cashed at Compass Bank locations around Gainesville.
Five checks were for $1,356 and one was for $2,356. Raye said Satchel's doesn't often give payroll checks that high, and he thinks the bank should have seen that all six checks were cashed on the same day.
The restaurant pays its employees about $35,000 every two weeks, so Raye had to be careful with money to make sure his restaurant could stay afloat.
He said if $6,000 more had been stolen, then the business would've struggled to make ends meet.
The bank, he said, reimbursed the money and put it in his account, but the next day, it took the money back.
Raye said the bank's reasoning was that it didn't need to refund him because he used a stamp for a signature on his checks - something, he said, the bank suggested he do to fill out large numbers of checks at once.
