SPOKANE, Wash. – One man was arrested and his brother is being sought on drug charges after an alert teller at Spokane Teachers CU called in the police when she smelled marijuana all over a wad of $2,300 deposited by one of the men.
The teller called the police, who verified the distinctive odor, then searched the member’s house, where they found more than two dozen pot plants, two pounds of processed marijuana and cash they believe was earned by the sale of the drug, according to Sgt. David Reagan, spokesman for the Spokane Sheriff’s Office.
"She noticed the smell both on the person and on the money. He reeked of it," said Craig Brendan, head of security and fraud at the $1.1 million credit union.
Brendan said they work with tellers to detect contaminated cash because of its potential to spark an allergic reaction on the tellers or on another member. "It’s a big concern; how we’re going to handle the money that comes in contaminated with methamphetamines, for example," he told The Credit Union Journal. He cited one case in which cash contaminated with fish caused an allergic reaction by one of the tellers. "We have to be careful about who we hand it out too."
After searching the suspect’s house, deputies arrested Shawn O’Bannon, 21, and he was charged with manufacturing a controlled substance, but are still searching for his 18-year-old brother, Daniel O’Bannon, who made the smelly deposit.
The next day, the credit union closed Daniel O’Bannon’s account, according to Brendan.
