. >> nathaniel carter had two tax refund checks but no bank account so his friend tried cash the checks at her bank but little did they know the money would disappear for three long years. >> i couldn't get anybody at the brarng to give me an answer. i kept running into dead ends. >> i was so stressed out because its his money. >> he deposited the checks, totaling $1118 in the atm machine, the former washington mutual bank but did the bank didn't accept checks made out to a third party. that is when the money disappeared. >> it was available to her for a short period of time and then all of a sudden it was removed from the account. >> the bank took the money out of her account and after that the money crisscrossed the country, twice, the bank sent the money to the treasury department which returned the funds to the bank, which sent the money back to the treasury department which gun returned the funds to the bank. -- which again returned the money to the bank. >> chase bank bought washington mutual and nobody could find his money. >> i said let's try 7 on your side. >> we contacted chas