A Michigan woman has filed a federal lawsuit against Fifth Third Bank after she alleges the institution racially discriminated against her after attempting to deposit a check she won at a local casino.
In the suit, filed late last month, 71-year-old Lizzie Pugh says she tried to deposit the check at the bank’s Livonia branch but was told the check was fraudulent. Three white employees attempted to keep the check after Pugh attempted to open a savings account and deposit the check. Pugh, a Black woman, says she won the $12,000 check after hitting the jackpot at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mount Pleasant in April. She was with her church group at the time of her winning.
“This is just one example of the continual hurdles and indignities that Black Americans face every day,” Pugh’s attorney, Deborah Gordon, told NBC.
The lawsuit, filed at the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan, further states that the check included a memo line reading: “SLOT JACKPOT.” Pugh’s name and address were also listed on the check, and matched her address on her driver’s license.
“She was made to feel humiliated the way they treated her from the time she walked in the door when they told her her check was fraudulent. And then they took her check,” Gordon added. “That’s when Lizzie Pugh drew the line. She got out her phone and said, ‘I’m calling the police.’ They expected her to leave the bank without that check.”
A spokesperson for Fifth Third Bank said in a statement that the bank is “committed to fair and responsible banking and prohibit discrimination of any kind. Our employees are trained to help every person with their banking needs — customer or non-customer — while minimizing the risk of any potential fraud.”
Pugh, who was raised in Alabama during the Jim Crow era and retired from Detroit Public Schools after 36 years, said what transpired at the bank was “humiliating” and “stressful.” “Why would I steal a check and try to cash it?” she told the Detroit Free Press. “I just didn’t think anybody would do that.”
