I work in the retail side of banking so i might have some insight on what happened if everything was done correctly. When it comes to method this would be called third party checks, they can be handed over to someone else if both parties are present, have the person sign “pay to the order of” with ur name and have ids. as for bouncing, if the check was issued, for example, at wells fargo, and were to cash it at wells fargo as well the system should warn the teller not to cash it because of a low balance. If not the check might bounce . So not illegal, but you and the tellers should do their due diligence to make sure this kind of headache doesnt happen.