I had this happen to me before too, a few times in fact. About a year or so ago, I logged onto my acct and saw it was about $700 negative. I freaked out. It was 2 large debits from overseas (London). I called my friend who works at the same bank and she helped me out, no problems. I signed an affidavit saying the charges were fraudulent, and the money temporarily returned into my acct within 24 hrs pending resolution of the case, then I had to wait for the bank to close the case until the money was permanently mine. They also refunded my NSF fees too. They handled it well, only bc and i truly believe this, bc my friend helped me out.
Weeks later, in another acct, B of A, only about $20 was debited that was unauthorized, and also I got the NSF fee bc I hardly use that acct and pretty much nothing was in it. Well, did I ever get the run around from them! Last time when my friend helped me out, I went into the branch, so I thought ok same thing, right? Wrong! What did they do when I got in there? pointed me to the phone. i said I could have called them from my house, why can't you help me in person? They just said they could not (yeah right, they just didn't want to). So long story short, when I called, they kept transferring me around, saying I was in the wrong dept, that I had called the wrong number and was not for the state of CA. They told me what # to call, it was the same number I called! Then after oh about 6 or 7 times getting transferred, the person who picked up asked "And how are you today?"
I said "Frustrated! I've been transferred around a million times and NO ONE wants to help me!" I told her my story and she said, oh you are supposed to be in the fraud dept, I normally would have to transfer you, but I'll take care of you here." So that made me think any one of those people could have helped me but they just didn't want to! Needless to say I closed my acct with B of A after that and let them know why!
Another time, I had direct debit for internet service. I cancelled the account and the debits, but the company kept debiting it (Net Zero). i even called them and asked why they were still taking my money. They said the acct shows closed on their system and they were not debiting, but I called them via the # posted directly on my statement, so I think they were lying to me. I called my bank and asked what i should do? They said they would do a stop payment on that exact amount and it's good for 6 months. They also waived the fee of a stop payment bc it was unauthorized. After the 6 months the debits were not showing up anymore. So BonBon, maybe ask your bank to do a stop payment on the amount, it sounded like there were 4 more pending "payments" they are supposed to get? Assuming they are for the exact same amount, this should work. Also tell them you want them to waive the fee. The should NOT charge you for that.
BTW, Your bank sounds like it really sucks. I'm so mad for you! I hope you get your money back soon.
Oh, in my cases, i was never told by my bank I needed to file a police report, but in this case since your bank doesn't seem to be working with you, I'd file one and use that as leverage for your bank to do something.