A black man tried depositing a racial bias settlement. Then a bank called cops on him

A black man depositing racial discrimination settlement checks is suing the bank for the way he was treated, media outlets report.

Now TFC Bank is apologizing.

Sauntore Thomas, a black man from Detroit, received a settlement in a racial discrimination lawsuit against his former employer, the Detroit Free Press first reported.

When he went to a TCF Bank in Livonia, Michigan, employees refused to put the money in his account, the newspaper reported. Instead, they called the police.

“I’m a United States veteran. I have an honorable discharge from the Air Force. They discriminated against me because I’m black,” Thomas told the Detroit Free Press. “None of this would have happened if I were white.”

In the new lawsuit, Thomas says he asked to start a savings account, receive a debit card, deposit the settlement and pull out money, The New York Times reported.

An assistant manager told him to wait because a system was malfunctioning and the checks had to be verified, the New York Times reported.

A TCF Bank spokesman said Thomas had a balance of 52 centsand no recent activity, The Associated Press reported.

A while later, four police officers arrived, with two waiting outside the bank while the others questioned him, Thomas told the New York Times.

The officers asked Thomas to remove his hands from his pockets and go to a back room, The New York Times reported.

“He thought I was a threat,” Thomas told The New York Times. “I was just trying to do some banking.”

Thomas called his attorney to verify the settlement check was real and showed them the lawsuit documents and the bottom half of a pay stub, BuzzFeed News reported. But the bank still didn’t believe him, BuzzFeed reported.

So, Thomas went to a nearby bank and made the deposit without a problem, he told BuzzFeed.

A TCF Bank spokesman said the bank should have accepted the checks and put an “extended hold” on them until they were deemed not fraudulent, according the AP.

TCF Bank issued an apology Thursday on Twitter.

“We apologize for the experience Mr. Thomas had at our banking center,” TCF Bank said. “Local police should not have been involved. We strongly condemn racism and discrimination of any kind.”

Still, Thomas believes that his race was a factor, according to the AP.

“This was no mistake,” Thomas told the AP. “This was not just, ‘Well, we made an error. I’m sorry.’ I didn’t get an ‘I’m sorry.’ I didn’t get no cup of coffee, and I didn’t get no doughnuts. The only thing I got from them was a hard time.”