Smelly check at Connecticut bank prompts hazmat call

NEW MILFORD, Conn. - An overpowering bad odor at a Bank of America branch office in New Milford prompted an emergency response from state environmental officials who discovered a bad check. It wasn't a check that was fake. It was smelly.

The stinky smell turned out to be from a paycheck deposited by a man who transferred machine oil from his hands to the check before he handed it to a teller through the drive-up window.

The Department of Environmental Protection made the discovery after evacuating the bank Thursday afternoon.

The DEP determined there was no hazard, and the bank reopened for business about an hour later.